Explaining the SM flavor structure with grand unified theories

TL;DR

This paper explores alternative grand unified theories where SM fermion families are distributed across different representations, aiming to explain the flavor structure and mass patterns beyond traditional models.

Contribution

It proposes a novel approach where SM families are embedded in distinct representations, potentially allowing gauge symmetry to explain flavor hierarchies.

Findings

Standard GUTs do not explain flavor patterns.

Distributing families over different representations offers new insights.

Embedding all fermions in one representation remains an ambitious goal.

Abstract

We do not know why there are three fermion families in the Standard Model (SM), nor can we explain the observed pattern of fermion masses and mixing angles. Standard grand unified theories based on the SU(5) and SO(10) groups fail to shed light on this issue, since they also contain three copies of fermion representations of an enlarged gauge group. However, it does not need to be so: the Standard Model families might be distributed over distinct representations of a grand unified model, in which case the gauge symmetry itself might discriminate the various families and explain (at least partially) the flavor puzzle. The most ambitious version of this idea consists on embedding all SM fermions in a single irreducible representation of the gauge group.