# weak bosons and feynman-stueckelberg interpretation

from Wiki "The W bosons have a positive and negative electric charge of 1 elementary charge respectively and are each other's antiparticle."

Q:If each is the other's antiparticle then which is retrograde in time according to Feynman-Stueckelberg interpretation (FSI)? I mean if by the FSI antiparticles move backwards in time, and if $W^+$ and $W^-$ are each others antiparticle - then which one moves backwards in time?

EDIT: after noting David's and Ron's points I've added a diagram to illustrate the problem.

Suppose out of the vacuum $W^+$ and $W^-$ are created which then decay to electrons and neutrinos

It only makes sense if one of the W bosons is retrograde. I have arbitrarily placed the tilt of the W bosons, so they can be interchanged without loss of generality.

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What you have draw is the independent decay of two weak bosons near each other. There is no six line vertex in the theory. Indeed, I not aware of a three line vertex with weak bosons (it is certainly not among the ones usually draw as characterizing the electroweak interaction), but I don't know enough to say that it is forbidden. – dmckee Jun 14 '12 at 0:59
@dmckee Doesn't the beta decay implicitly have a three vertex with a $\bar{\nu }_e$ , $e^-$ and $W^-$,but yes your right about the whole interaction being incomprehensible - I'll redraw it . – metzgeer Jun 14 '12 at 1:10
Yes, of course there is the vertex you describe. My poor typing and proofreading skills strike again. That was meant to be I not aware of a three line vertex with two weak bosons. – dmckee Jun 14 '12 at 1:12

For space-like lines, however, there isn't really a notion of "forward" or "backward" in time at all---tilt the line a little one way and there is a "unique" answer, tilt it the other way and the other answer is obvious and necessary. The perturbation series does not distinguish between the two "tilts", so we just label the line $W^\pm$ or even just $W$ when we're being lazy.
Yes I agree and can see how electrons and positrons are each others antiparticles. Where the positron is the negative energy state of the electron taken in the forward direction of time. But note, a $W^+$ decays into a $e^+$ and e-neutrino - doesn't that imply the $W^+$ is like the positron and is the antiparticle to the $W^-$ ? – metzgeer Jun 14 '12 at 0:00