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The particle-physics term boson refers to a particle with full-integer spin (1, 2, 3, etc.). In contrast, a fermion is a particle with half-integer spin, i.e., 1/2 different than some integer (1/2, 3/2, -1/2, etc.). An elementary boson is one that is an elementary particle, and a composite boson is one that is a composite particle (comprising elementary particles whose spins sum to an integer), these two categories sharing the characteristics associated with full-integer spin, including adherence to Bose-Einstein statistics. Example elementary bosons are photons, gluons, W bosons, Z bosons, and Higgs bosons. Among the composite bosons are alpha particles, and any (other) atomic nucleus with an even mass number.