Intermediate Bosons and the Electromagnetic Field

Possible symmetries between the (hypothetical) charged intermediate-boson field W_ν^± and the derivative of the electromagnetic field ∂F_μν∂x_ν are investigated. We assume that (a) the total electromagnetic current operator I_ν^γ=e₀^-1(∂F_μν∂x_ν) is proportional to a neutral member W_ν⁰ of the intermediate-boson fields, (b) all hadron mass differences between different members of the same isospin multiplet consist of finite O(e²) terms but no O(f²) terms, and (c) all known leptonic, semileptonic, and ΔS≠0 nonleptonic weak processes are transmitted by a single W_ν^± field, where f, e, and e₀ are, respectively, the semiweak coupling constant, the renormalized charge, and the unrenormalized charge. The simplest model compatible with (a), (b), and (c) is found to be one consisting of six intermediate bosons, which may be regarded as forming an SU₃ triplet and its Hermitian conjugate. Assumption (a) also implies finite radiative corrections for other processes such as weak decays, charge renormalization, etc. The unrenormalized charge e₀ is shown to be finite, bounded by the inequality 1(e₀e)√2. A lower limit of f² is established. Neglecting higher-order corrections, one finds this lower limit of f² to be 4/3e²sec²θ and, in this limit, e₀=√2e and mWmNα^-1, where α is the fine structure constant, mW and mN are, respectively, the W^± mass and the nucleon mass, and θ is the Cabibbo angle. The same model can also lead, in a reasonably natural way, to CP nonconservation.