Colour and Higgs charges in G/H Kaluza-Klein theory

Abstract

Geodesics in a multidimensional Universe with G-invariant metric are studied and differential equations describing the space-time projection are derived. It is shown that, when internal spaces are cosets rather than group manifolds, then, in addition to the colour charge through which the particle interacts with the gauge field, a new charge arises which couples to the scalar fields only. This new charge, called the Higgs charge, is shown to be of a nonlinear nature. For certain cosets it may contribute to the colour charge non-conservation.