Experimental consequences of family unification.

Abstract

Theories of family unification predict four left-handed and four right-handed families of quarks and leptons, all with masses below 265 GeV. The lightest mirror quark has a mass of less than 140 GeV. All charged leptons are lighter than 55 GeV, and the lightest is below 40 GeV. All five new neutrinos have masses less than 40 GeV and contribute to the width of the ${Z}^{0}$. We study the decays of these new families, and discuss rare processes such as $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}e\ensuremath{\gamma}$. We also examine proton decay, and show that it can proceed into ${e}^{+}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ at the observable but acceptable rate of ${10}^{32\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1}$ yr.