2015/05/31 by Yoni BenTov, A. Zee
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Fractal and DNA sequence analysis #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.str-el #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.93.065036
published as Phys. Rev. D 93, 065036 (2016) · 31 pages, no figures. v2: minor changes, added subsection II.3
arxiv created 2016/02/04 · openalex publication_date 2016/03/18 · arxiv updated 2016/03/23 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We exploit a recent advance in the study of interacting topological superconductors to propose a solution to the family puzzle of particle physics in the context of SO(18) [or more correctly, Spin(18)] grand unification. We argue that Yukawa couplings of intermediate strength may allow the mirror matter and extra families to decouple at arbitrarily high energies. As was clear from the existing literature, we have to go beyond the Higgs mechanism in order to solve the family puzzle. A pattern of symmetry breaking which results in the SU(5) grand unified theory with horizontal or family symmetry USp(4)=Spin(5) [or more loosely, SO(5)] leaves exactly three light families of matter and seems particularly appealing. We comment briefly on an alternative scheme involving discrete non-Abelian family symmetries. In a few lengthy Appendices we review some of the pertinent condensed matter theory.