An extension of quaternionic metrics to octonions in a non-Riemannian spacetime: Including Yang–Mills-like fields within a division octonion algebra

Abstract

In this paper, we develop an extended space-time geometry that includes an internal space built with division octonions with realization via Pauli matrices and Zorn (vectorial) matrices. Here, we extend a former field theory that used split octonion algebra to a division octonion algebra on a non-Riemannian manifold. The octonionic algebra is the last possible algebra allowed by the Hurwitz theorem. The interpretation of the “octonionic field” in this division octonionic algebra is not straightforward, however it behaves in a similar way to the quaternionic Yang–Mills fields. Former work suggests that this Yang–Mills-like octonionic field is associated with the field governing quarks within nucleons. In this work, we discover that the inclusion of octonionic fields in the geometry of an internal space necessarily excludes the quaternionic (Yang–Mills) fields in an extended non-Riemannian geometry. This is not what is expected from the standpoint of a “unified” field theory, which leads us to propose a different approach to Einstein’s unified field theory.