HIGGS FIELDS AND THE DETERMINATION OF THE WEINBERG ANGLE

SU(2) × U(1) gauge theories, in which the Higgs fields transform as doublets under SU(2) are interpreted as pure Yang-Mills theories in six dimensions, the components of the gauge potentials in the extra dimensions playing the role of the Higgs' fields. Two consistent theories are discovered: one in which SU(2) × U(1) is embedded in SU(3) and the vector bosons remain massless - and another where SU(2) × U(1) is embedded in the graded Lie algebra SU(2|1), the symmetry is spontaneously broken in a natural fashion and the theory is equivalent to that of Weinberg and Salam, with a specific value 30° for the Weinberg angle and a prediction of the Higgs' mass. © 1979.