Charged current

During these processes, the W-boson induces electron or positron emission or absorption, or changing the flavour of a quark as well as its electrical charge, such as in beta decay or K-capture.

[1] By contrast, the Z particle is electrically neutral, and exchange of a Z-boson leaves the interacting particles' quantum numbers unaffected, except for a transfer of momentum, spin, and energy.

By contrast, exchanges of Z bosons involve no transfer of electrical charge, so it is referred to as a "neutral current".

In the latter case, the word "current" has nothing to do with electricity – it simply refers to the Z bosons' movement between other particles.

For example, the charged current contribution to the νee− → νee− elastic scattering amplitude is:[2] where the charged currents describing the flow of one fermion into the other are given by:[2] The W-Boson can couple to any particle with weak isospin (i.e. any left-handed Standard Model fermions).