boson
n. countablen. a type of tiny particle that carries a force, like the photon for light. These particles follow special rules that let many of them exist in the same place at once.
n. a subatomic particle that follows Bose-Einstein statistics and has an integer value of spin. These particles are the force carriers of the fundamental interactions, such as the photon for electromagnetism.
The photon is a well-known example of a boson.
In the Standard Model of particle physics, bosons are responsible for mediating the fundamental forces between fermions.
The discovery of the Higgs boson provided experimental confirmation of the mechanism by which particles acquire mass through their interaction with the Higgs field.
From Bose + -on. Named after Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose (1894–1974); coined by English physicist Paul Dirac in 1945 in a lecture titled "Developments in Atomic Theory".
Contraction of boatswain.