n. a petty officer on a merchant ship who controls the work of other seamen.
n. [ From S. N. Bose, an Indian physicist. ] (Physics) A fundamental particle that obeys Bose-Einstein statistical rules, but not the Pauli exclusion principle; the spin value of a boson is always an integer. Examples of bosons are alpha particles, photons, and those nuclei which have an even mass number. [ PJC ]
n. See Boatswain. [ Obs. ]
n. [ From S. N. Bose, an Indian physicist. ] (Physics) A fundamental particle that obeys Bose-Einstein statistical rules, but not the Pauli exclusion principle; the spin value of a boson is always an integer. Examples of bosons are alpha particles, photons, and those nuclei which have an even mass number. [ PJC ]
n. See Boatswain. [ Obs. ]