Grand unification with a confining model of the weak interactions

Abstract

A novel grand unification model based on SO(14) is presented. Spontaneous symmetry breakings at the grand unification scale give SO(14)..-->..SU(7)..-->..SU(4)/sub m/ x SU(3)/sub c/ x U(1)/sub e/ where U(1)/sub e/ is the electromagnetic gauge field and SU(4)/sub m/ is the metacolor interaction which binds preons into quarks, leptons, and composite W/sup + -/ and Z/sup 0/ bosons. All the light chiral fermions come from one spinor representation (64) of SO(14). The model predicts exactly four families of quarks and leptons, an extremely long proton lifetime, and a number of other properties in good agreement with experiments. If one of the charged leptons is substantially lighter than the others (as is the case of the electron), the following mass relation emerges quite naturally: (m/sub d//m/sub e/)/sup 1/3/ approx. =m/sub s//m/sub ..mu../ approx. =m/sub b//m/sub tau/ approx. =m/sub b/'/m', where b',tau' are the corresponding members of the fourth family.