Eur. Phys. J. C (2007) 52: 635-663
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-007-0406-4

Regular Article - Theoretical Physics

A model behind the standard model

¹ Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon, OX11 0QX, UK
² Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, 24-29 St. Giles’, Oxford, OX1 3LB, UK

^* e-mail: tsou@maths.ox.ac.uk

Received: 24 July 2007
Published online: 28 September 2007

Abstract

In spite of its many successes, the standard model makes many empirical assumptions in the Higgs and fermion sectors for which a deeper theoretical basis is sought. Starting from the usual gauge symmetry, u(1)×su(2)×su(3) plus the three assumptions of (A) scalar fields as vielbeins in internal symmetry space, (B) the ”confinement picture” of symmetry breaking, (C) generations as ”dual” to colour, we are led to a scheme that offers (I) geometrical significance to scalar fields, (II) a theoretical criterion for what scalar fields are to be introduced, (III) a partial explanation of why su(2) appears broken while su(3) confines, (IV) baryon–lepton number (B-L) conservation, (V) the standard electroweak structure, (VI) a 3-valued generation index for leptons and quarks, and (VII) a dynamical system with all the essential features of an earlier phenomenological model, which gave a good description of the known mass and mixing patterns of quarks and leptons including neutrino oscillations. There are other implications, the consistency of which with experiment, however, has not yet been systematically explored. A possible outcome is a whole new branch of particle spectroscopy from su(2) confinement, potentially as rich in details as that of hadrons from colour confinement, which will be accessible to experiment at high energy.