ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the Glashow–Weinberg–Salam (GWS) theory of the electroweak interaction. In the GWS theory, which is also termed the standard model (of the electroweak interaction), the weak and the electromagnetic interaction are introduced as different components of a single gauge theory. The chapter lists the important points of reference between the classical and the modern theories of the weak interaction. It considers the gauge theory of the electroweak interaction only in the lepton sector and aims to extend this theory to hadrons. In a gauge theory of the electroweak interaction based on the quark doublets, in the least order perturbation theory, there are, as experimentally required, no flavour changing neutral currents. The gauge theory of the electroweak interaction may be tested based on the predictions, which go beyond those of the classical theory.
