2007/07/29 by Peter R. Phillips, Phillips, Peter R.
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0707.4323
17 pages, 9 figures, format for Phys. Rev. D
arxiv created 2007/07/29 · openalex publication_date 2007/07/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate whether a mass scale for elementary particles can be derived from interactions of particles with distant matter in the Universe, the mechanism of the interaction being the classical vector potential, propagating in a space of negative curvature. A possible context for such a mass scale is conformal gravity. This theory may prove to be renormalizable, since all coupling constants are dimensionless; conversely, however, there is no coupling constant analogous to the conventional G to provide a starting point for a mass scale calculation. We obtain the equations for propagation of the vector potential of a charged particle moving in a plasma in a curved space. We then show that distant matter will contribute to A**2, and that this non-thermal part will eventually dominate the ordinary thermal part. At this point a symmetry breaking transition of the Coleman-Weinberg type is possible, and particle masses can be generated with m**2 of order A**2.