From: moroney@TheWorld.com   
      
   As I understand what I read a while back, the properties of a force are   
   determined by the properties of the boson associated with the force. (or   
   the other way around?) In particular, the boson's spin.  A spin 1 boson   
   (such as the photon) means the field is a vector, there is one level of   
   conservation (in this case, conservation of charge), and being odd, the   
   force can be either attractive or repulsive.  The mediator of gravity, the   
   graviton, if it existed, would have a spin of 2, meaning the field is a 2d   
   tensor, and there are two levels of conservation law.  Conservation of   
   mass-energy, and consevation of momentum.  In addition, being even means   
   that gravity is only attractive.  I know the graviton probably doesn't   
   exist.   
      
   In addition, the mass of the mediator affects the range, by adding an   
   inverse exponential falloff defined by the mass to the inverse square law.   
   Which is why the "weak" force is weak; the falloff due to the large mass   
   of the W/Z bosons gives it a very short effective range.  But the massless   
   photon and the (theoretical) massless graviton have an infinite range.   
      
   What if, there existed a massless spin-0 force mediator boson? What   
   properties would its associated force have?  I assume that 0 being even   
   means it's attractive only and would have no associated conservation   
   laws.  Any other "interesting" properties it would have?   
      
   How about a spin 3 or more force boson? How would its force be interesting?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)