Weak nuclear force

The weak nuclear force (also known simply as the weak force), is a fundamental force carried by weak bosons.

The weak force allows particles to change into one another. For example, a downquark can change into an upquark. In this change, there is always a weak boson involved.

You can force this change on a crafting grid, or you can let the change happen spontaneously in the world of elementary craft.

When you combine a weak boson on the crafting grid with a matter particle, the particle will change into its weak partner.

The weak partners are:


 * electron & neutrino
 * positron & anti-neutrino
 * anti-upquark & anti-downquark
 * upquark & downquark (and therefore proton & neutron because they consist of quarks)

This means you can make the following combinations on the crafting grid


 * downquark & W+ boson →  upquark
 * upquak & W- boson →  downquark
 * proton & W- boson → neutron
 * neutron & W+ boson → proton
 * antidownquark & W- boson →  antiupquark
 * antiupquark & W+ boson → antidownquark
 * elektron & W+ boson → neutrino
 * neutrino & W- boson → elektron
 * positron & W- boson → antineutrino
 * antineutrino & W+ boson → positron

The distinction between W+ boson and W- boson is not made in elementary craft: both are simply called "weak boson". The sign indicates the charge of the boson. W+ has an electric charge of +1. The electric charge of the weak boson is important to make sure that the electric charge is conserved throughout the interaction. The sum of the electric charges of the initial particles, has to be the same as the sum of the electric charges of the final particles.

Sometimes, the change happens spontaneously. For example, when you put a neutron into the world, after some time it will spontaneously spawn a weak boson and change into a proton. This processes is called decay.

If you have a collection of several neutrons, half of them will have changed into a proton after a time that we call the ‘half life’. In our real universe, the lifetime of a neutron is just under 15 minutes (881.5±1.5 s). 15 minecraft minutes are 12,5 seconds in real life.

The pions are also unstable particles. If you put a charged pion into the world, then it disappears and spawns a weak boson.