Editorial use only. This image may not be used to state or imply endorsement by CERN of any product, activity or service Production and decay of a Z p

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Editorial use only. This image may not be used to state or imply endorsement by CERN of any product, activity or service Production and decay of a Z particle in the UA1 detector at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory outside Geneva. An unseen proton & antiproton, accelerated to high energy in CERN's SPS collider, have annihilated at the centre of the detector to produce two sprays of particles which go to left & right, showing up as the yellow & green tracks and red blocks. The collision also creates a neutral Z particle, which is unseen but reveals itself when it decays immediately into an electron & a positron (long white tracks). Discovered by CERN's UA1 & UA2 detectors in 1983, the Z particle is a gauge boson, one of the carrier particles of the weak nuclear force.

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Keywords: bosons, cern, collider, computer, detector, display, electron, electronic, electrons, force, gauge, high-energy, leptons, nuclear, odyssey, particle, particles, physics, positron, positrons, research, screen, sps, subatomic, ua1, weak