"[T]he work of a number of theoretical physicists in the 1960s culminated in the electroweak theory that is designed to unify electromagnetism and the weak force... This theory is sometimes called the 'GWS Theory', from... Sheldon Glashow, Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam... The main feature of the theory is that at extremely high temperatures the electromagnetic and weak forces are two components of a single force, the electroweak force. The symmetry between the two forces would only be apparent at temperatures of trillions of degrees... in the Big Bang. At lower temperatures... electromagnetism remains a long range force, but the weak force takes on the characteristics of... a very weak force that acts over extremely short distances. ...But the theory is dependent on the existence of the Higgs particle..."