Past exam of the groups and representations course of the University of Oxford / 2025 / 4 / d

One generation of left-handed Standard Model fermions fits into $\overline{5}\oplus 10$ of an SU(5) grand unified theory. With hypercharge defined by $Q=T_3+Y$, their restriction of a representation to $SU(3{)}_c\times SU(2{)}_L\times U(1{)}_Y$ isHere $Q$ in the multiplet list denotes the left-handed quark doublet, and the superscript $c$ labels left-handed charge-conjugate fields of the corresponding right-handed fermions.

The results of c therefore giveThus the required matter representations are present. The extra singlet has Standard Model representation $(1,1{)}_0$ and can describe the left-handed charge-conjugate field of a right-handed neutrino. Its gauge singlet character permits a Majorana mass term; a Yukawa interaction with a lepton doublet and a suitable Higgs field can then supply neutrino masses. The branching alone does not fix those interactions or their scales.

The extra $5$ hasIf it describes Weyl fermions, these are additional coloured and electroweak fermions in the conjugate Standard Model representations to the ordinary $\overline{5}$. With an additional $\overline{5}$, they can form a vectorlike gauge spectrum and acquire invariant masses. Pairing them with the only ordinary $\overline{5}$ would also remove that generation's $d^c,L$ fields, so a realistic heavy pairing needs extra matter. If the $5$ instead describes a scalar field, it has the quantum numbers of the usual $SU(5)$ Higgs field: a weak doublet and a coloured triplet. A single fermionic $15$ does not turn its extra fermions into a scalar Higgs field merely by branching.

There is a further consistency condition if these are the entire chiral matter content of an $SU(6)$ gauge theory. Normalize the cubic anomaly coefficient by $A(6)=1$. The dual representation has $A(\overline{6})=-1$, and the two-index antisymmetric representation has $A(15)=6-4=2$. Thus one copy of each has nonzero gauge anomaly, $A_{\mathrm{total}}=1$. Their inclusion of the desired $SU(5)$ multiplets is therefore not, by itself, a complete consistent chiral unified theory.

For example, anomaly cancellation holds for $15\oplus 2\overline{6}$, whose restriction of a representation isThis leaves one ordinary generation, a potentially massive vectorlike gauge spectrum, and two possible singlet neutrinos. This anomaly-free matter choice is also used in explicit $SU(6)$ model constructions.^[ref] These interpretations require additional choices of matter statistics, spontaneous symmetry breaking, and interactions; the weight systems determine the multiplet content.