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Write $t=\log \mu$ and use ${\alpha }_i=g_i^2/(4\pi )$. The chain rule turns the renormalization-group beta function intoIntegrating gives the one-loop inverse gauge coupling evolutionThis expression applies over a range with unchanged active field content and in the perturbative regime. It uses $\log \mu$, not $\log {\mu }^2$.

For gauge coupling unification, define the normalized inverse couplings $A_1=3/(5{\alpha }_1)$, $A_2=1/{\alpha }_2$, $A_3=1/{\alpha }_3$, and slopes $b_1=(3/5){\beta }_1$, $b_2={\beta }_2$, $b_3={\beta }_3$. At the common scale each inverse coupling is $A_U$. With $L=\log (M_{\mathrm{GUT}}/M_Z)$,Subtract the equations for factors 1 and 2 to solve $L=2\pi (A_1-A_2)/(b_1-b_2)$, then insert this into the difference of factors 3 and 2:This one-loop normalized hypercharge unification relation requires $b_1\ne b_2$. A scale above $M_Z$ also requires the inferred $L$ to be positive. If those two slopes coincide, unification instead requires $A_1=A_2$ and their difference cannot fix the scale.

In the convention $Q=T_3+Y$, one matter generation and one Higgs doublet have the following Standard Model representations. Spin is in units of $\hslash$; L/R describe chirality, not the spin projection. The $U(1{)}_Y$ entry is its hypercharge eigenvalue, defining the one-dimensional representation $e^{iY\omega }$.

There is no right-handed neutrino in the minimal field content being counted. Right-handed matter can alternatively be written as left-handed charge-conjugate Weyl fermions, in conjugate colour representations with opposite hypercharges. The quadratic indices and squared charges in the beta coefficients are unchanged.

For $SU(3)$, one generation supplies two colour fundamentals from $Q_L$ and one each from $u_R,d_R$. With three generations there are $n_f=3(2+1+1)=12$ Weyl fermions counted as fundamental copies, and no coloured scalar. ThusFor $SU(2)$, the three colours of $Q_L$ give three weak-doublet copies and $L_L$ gives one. There are $n_f=3(3+1)=12$ doublets across three generations and $n_s=1$ complex Higgs doublet, givingThese are spectator multiplicities in gauge beta functions: the colour index multiplies the weak contribution, while the weak index multiplies the colour contribution. Each two-component fermion is counted once; it must not be counted again as a separate antiparticle.

For $U(1{)}_Y$, sum squared hypercharges over all colour and weak components. One generation givesThe two complex Higgs components give ${\sum }_s{Y}_s^2=2(1/2{)}^2=1/2$. There is no Abelian gauge self-interaction contribution. ThereforeThe Higgs is counted only once for the whole model, whereas the fermionic generation is repeated three times. These are the Standard Model one-loop gauge coefficients in the unnormalized hypercharge convention. The grand-unified normalization instead has $b_1=41/10$. The ratio of slopes in the unification relation is $({\beta }_3-{\beta }_2)/(b_1-{\beta }_2)=-115/218$.