Unification of gravity, gauge fields and Higgs bosons

Abstract

We consider a diffeomorphism invariant theory of a gauge field valued in a Lie algebra that breaks spontaneously to the direct sum of the spacetime Lorentz algebra, a Yang–Mills algebra and their complement. Beginning with a fully gauge invariant action—an extension of the Plebanski action for general relativity—we recover the action for gravity, Yang–Mills and Higgs fields. The low-energy coupling constants, obtained after symmetry breaking, are all functions of the single parameter present in the initial action and the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs.