Mass generation by Weyl symmetry breaking

Authors
Citation
W. Drechsler, Mass generation by Weyl symmetry breaking, FOUND PHYS, 29(9), 1999, pp. 1327-1369
Citations number
9
Categorie Soggetti
Physics
Journal title
FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS
ISSN journal
00159018 → ACNP
Volume
29
Issue
9
Year of publication
1999
Pages
1327 - 1369
Database
ISI
SICI code
0015-9018(199909)29:9<1327:MGBWSB>2.0.ZU;2-L
Abstract
A massless electroweak theory for leptons is formulated in a Weyl space, W- 4, yielding a Weyl invariant dynamics of a scalar field phi, chiral Dirac f ermion fields psi(L) and psi(R), and the gauge fields K-mu, A(mu), Z(mu), W -mu, and W-mu(dagger), allowing for conformal rescalings of the metric g(mu nu) and all fields with nonvanishing Weyl weight together with the corresp onding transformations of the Weyl vector fields, K-mu, representing the D( 1) or dilatation gauge fields. The local group structure of this Weyl elect roweak (WEW) theory is given by G = SO(3, 1) circle times D(1) circle times (G) over tilde-or its universal coverging group (G) over bar for the fermi ons-with (G) over tilde denoting the electroweak gauge group SU(2)(W) x U(1 )(Y). In order to investigate the appearance of nonzero masses in the theor y the Weyl symmetry is explicitly broken by a term in the Lagrangean constr ucted with the curvature scalar R of the W-4 and a mass term for the scalar field. Thereby also the Z(mu) and W-mu gauge fields as well as the charged fermion field (electron) acquire a mass as in the standard electroweak the ory. The symmetry breaking is governed by the relation D(mu)Phi(2) = 0, whe re Phi is the modulus of the scalar field and D-mu denotes the Weyl-covaria nt derivative. This true symmetry reduction, establishing a scale of length in the theory by breaking the D(1) gauge symmetry, is compared to the so-c alled spontaneous symmetry breaking in the standard electroweak theory, whi ch is, actually, the choice of a particular (non-linear) gauge obtained by adopting an origin, <(phi)over cap>, in the coset space representing phi, w ith <(phi)over cap> being invariant under the electromagnetic, gauge group U(1)(c.m.). Particular attention is devoted to the appearance of Einstein's equations for the metric after the Weyl symmetry breaking, yielding a pseu do-Riemannian space, V-4, from a W-4 and a scalar field with a constant mod ulus <(phi)over cap>(0). The quantity <(phi)over cap>(2)(0) affects Einstei n's gravitational constant in a manner comparable to the Brans-Dicke theory . The consequences of the broken WEW theory are worked out and the determin ation of the parameters of the theory is discussed.