Fundamental interaction, in physics, any of the four basic forces—gravitational, electromagnetic, strong, and weak—that govern how objects or particles interact and how certain particles decay. All the known forces of nature can be traced to these fundamental interactions. The fundamental interactions are characterized on the basis of the following four criteria: the types of particles that experience the force, the relative strength of the force, the range over which the force is effective, and the nature of the particles that mediate the force.
The previous section of this article presented an overview of the basic issues in particle physics, including the four fundamental interactions that affect all of matter. In this section the four interactions, or basic forces, are treated in greater…
Gravitation and electromagnetism were recognized long before the discovery of the strong and weak forces because their effects on ordinary objects are readily observed. The gravitational force, described systematically by Isaac Newton in the 17th century, acts between all objects having mass; it causes apples to fall from trees and determines the orbits of the planets around the Sun. The electromagnetic force, given scientific definition by James Clerk Maxwell in the 19th century, is responsible for the repulsion of like and the attraction of unlike electric charges; it also explains the chemical behaviour of matter and the properties of light. The strong and weak forces were discovered by physicists in the 20th century when they finally probed into the core of the atom. The strong force acts between quarks, the constituents of all subatomic particles, including protons and neutrons. The residual effects of the strong force bind the protons and neutrons of the atomic nucleus together in spite of the intense repulsion of the positively charged protons for each other. The weak force manifests itself in certain forms of radioactive decay and in the nuclear reactions that fuel the Sun and other stars. Electrons are among the elementary subatomic particles that experience the weak force but not the strong force.
The four forces are often described according to their relative strengths. The strong force is regarded as the most powerful force in nature. It is followed in descending order by the electromagnetic, weak, and gravitational forces. Despite its strength, the strong force does not manifest itself in the macroscopic universe because of its extremely limited range. It is confined to an operating distance of about 10−15 metre—about the diameter of a proton. When two particles that are sensitive to the strong force pass within this distance, the probability that they will interact is high. The range of the weak force is even shorter. Particles affected by this force must pass within 10−17 metre of one another to interact, and the probability that they will do so is low even at that distance unless the particles have high energies. By contrast, the gravitational and electromagnetic forces operate at an infinite range. That is to say, gravity acts between all objects of the universe, no matter how far apart they are, and an electromagnetic wave, such as the light from a distant star, travels undiminished through space until it encounters some particle capable of absorbing it.
For years physicists have sought to show that the four basic forces are simply different manifestations of the same fundamental force. The most successful attempt at such a unification is the electroweak theory, proposed during the late 1960s by Steven Weinberg, Abdus Salam, and Sheldon Lee Glashow. This theory, which incorporates quantum electrodynamics (the quantum field theory of electromagnetism), treats the electromagnetic and weak forces as two aspects of a more-basic electroweak force that is transmitted by four carrier particles, the so-called gauge bosons. One of these carrier particles is the photon of electromagnetism, while the other three—the electrically charged W+ and W− particles and the neutral Z0 particle—are associated with the weak force. Unlike the photon, these weak gauge bosons are massive, and it is the mass of these carrier particles that severely limits the effective range of the weak force.
In the 1970s investigators formulated a theory for the strong force that is similar in structure to quantum electrodynamics. According to this theory, known as quantum chromodynamics, the strong force is transmitted between quarks by gauge bosons called gluons. Like photons, gluons are massless and travel at the speed of light. But they differ from photons in one important respect: they carry what is called “colour” charge, a property analogous to electric charge. Gluons are able to interact together because of colour charge, which at the same time limits their effective range.
Investigators are seeking to devise comprehensive theories that will unify all four basic forces of nature. So far, however, gravity remains beyond attempts at such unified field theories.
The current physical description of the fundamental interactions is embodied within the Standard Model of particle physics, which outlines the properties of all the fundamental particles and their forces. Graphical representations of the effect of fundamental interactions on the behaviour of elementary subatomic particles are incorporated in Feynman diagrams.