Rub·bi·a  (rōō'bē-ə, rōō'byä)  Italian physicist. He shared a 1984 Nobel Prize for the discovery of three subatomic particles. |
Rubbia (r 'bē-ə) Pronunciation Key
Italian physicist who discovered the W and Z bosons that carry the weak nuclear force. The existence of these subatomic particles strongly confirmed the validity of the theory of the electroweak force. For this work Rubbia shared with Dutch physicist Simon van der Meer the 1984 Nobel Prize for physics. |
Rubbia, Carlo
Italian physicist who in 1984 shared with Simon van der Meer the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of the massive, short-lived subatomic W particle and Z particle. These particles are the carriers of the so-called weak force involved in the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. Their existence strongly confirms the validity of the electroweak theory, proposed in the 1970s, that the weak force and electromagnetism are different manifestations of a single basic kind of physical interaction.
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