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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1980 Jun;77(6):3127–3131. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.6.3127

Internal supersymmetry and unification

Yuval Ne'eman †,, Shlomo Sternberg †,§
PMCID: PMC349566  PMID: 16592837

Abstract

We construct a family of finite-dimensional representations of the superalgebra sl(n/m) that depend on an integer parameter for m > 1 and on a complex parameter, b, for m = 1. We describe some models of elementary particles for sl(2/1), sl(3/1), and sl(5/1). This involves the choice of the parameter b and the choice of the operators I3 (the third component of the weak left-handed isospin) and U (the weak hypercharge). These must commute, and are related to the electric charge by the usual formula Q = I3 + ½U. In particular, taking I3 to be in its standard form in su(2) ⊂ sl(5) ⊂ sl(5/1) and requiring that U commute with color su(3) ⊂ sl(5) ⊂ sl(5/1) leaves three free parameters, two for the choice of U and one for the choice of b. We show that there are just two possible choices of these parameters yielding exactly all 32 quark and lepton charges: the Georgi-Glashow Usu(5), corresponding to U(1,-⅔) and arbitrary b and U(0,⅓) ∉ su(5), with b = 2. We provide a general construction of representations of sl(n/1) consisting exactly of sequences of generations of quarks and leptons.

Keywords: Lie superalgebras, fundamental representations, weak-electromagnetic charges, color, quark and lepton assignments

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Ne'eman Y., Thierry-Mieg J. Geometrical gauge theory of ghost and Goldstone fields and of ghost symmetries. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Feb;77(2):720–723. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.2.720. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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