Unification of Einstein Gravity with Internal Interactions

Abstract

The gauge-theoretic formulation of gravity, enriched with the observation that the tangent group of a curved manifold need not have the same dimension as the manifold itself, provides a natural framework for unifying gravity with internal interactions. In the present work we study the unification of Einstein gravity with the $SO(10)$ grand unified theory within an $SO(1,17)$ gauge theory. As a central result, we derive Einstein gravity with a cosmological constant from the spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) of an $SO(1,5)$ gauge theory to the Lorentz group via two independent routes: one using two scalar fields in the fundamental representation $6$ of $SO(6)$, and one using a single scalar in the adjoint $15$. Both yield a Gauss-Bonnet + Einstein-Hilbert + cosmological constant action. Embedding the $SO(1,5)$ gravitational sector in $SO(1,17)$ and breaking the full gauge group yields Einstein gravity coupled to $SO(10)$. The Weyl-Majorana condition reduces the fermion family degeneracy to two, in contrast to the four families obtained in the $SO(2,16)$ conformal gravity unification.

21 pages. Submitted to Eur. Phys. J. C. v2: references added