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Chirality distinguishes the two inequivalent Weyl spinor representations of the proper Lorentz group. For a Dirac spinor, define ${\gamma }^5=i{\gamma }^0{\gamma }^1{\gamma }^2{\gamma }^3$ and the chiral projectorsThey satisfy $P_L{P}_R=0$ and $P_L+P_R=I$. Proper Lorentz transformations preserve each chiral representation, whereas parity exchanges them. Helicity instead measures the projection of spin angular momentum along momentum. For a massive particle it can change under a boost that overtakes the particle, so it must not be identified with chirality. For massless positive-energy particles the left-chiral field annihilates negative-helicity particles and creates positive-helicity antiparticles.

The Standard Model is a chiral gauge theory: left- and right-chiral fields have different gauge group representations. In the convention $Q=T_3+Y$, one generation containsThe minimal field content has no right-handed neutrino. A sterile right-handed field is a possible extension, not a required member of that minimal list. The table displays weak isospin, hypercharge and color charge assignments, not assignments of massive-particle helicity.

The weak charged current contains $\bar{\nu }{\gamma }^{\mu }{P}_{L}e{W}_{\mu }^{+}$ and its Hermitian conjugate, with coupling $g/\sqrt{2}$. Only the left-chiral lepton doublet participates, giving parity violation. Both chiralities can couple to the Z boson, but their coefficients differ:Here $T_3$ is that of the left-chiral component. For the electron, it is $-1/2$. The photon and gluon couplings of a charged massive fermion are vectorlike; this does not make the full electroweak interaction vectorlike.

A bare Dirac mass term $m\bar{\psi }\psi =m({\bar{\psi }}_L{\psi }_R+{\bar{\psi }}_R{\psi }_L)$ joins the two chiral representations. Their different electroweak quantum numbers forbid that term before electroweak symmetry breaking. A Yukawa interaction, such as $-y_e{\bar{L}}_{L}H{e}_R+h.c.$, is gauge invariant; the Higgs doublet expectation value then gives $m_e=y_{e}v/\sqrt{2}$. Up-type quarks use the conjugate doublet. Thus chirality explains the weak charge assignments, their parity violation, and why masses arise through the Higgs mechanism. The consistency of these chiral assignments also requires Standard Model anomaly cancellation.

Use the electroweak hypercharge normalization $Q=T_3+Y$, rather than $Q=T_3+\hat{Y}/2$. In the latter convention all tabulated hypercharges would be doubled. The electroweak representation and hypercharge table for one minimal Standard Model generation isThe quarks are colour triplets, the leptons are colour singlets, and all listed right-handed fields are weak singlets. A sterile right-handed neutrino, if added, has representation $(1,1{)}_0$ and changes none of the anomaly traces.

On each left weak doublet, $T_3=\mathrm{diag}(1/2,-1/2)$. The electric charges are therefore $1/6\pm 1/2=(2/3,-1/3)$ for $Q_L$ and $-1/2\pm 1/2=(0,-1)$ for $L_L$. On each right singlet $T_3=0$, so its electric charge equals its hypercharge. These are the observed quark and lepton charge assignments.

For Standard Model anomaly cancellation, traces must include both components of each doublet and all three colours. Every right weak singlet has $T_3^2=0$, givingOn the left doublets, $T_3^2=I/4$, while ${\mathrm{tr}}_L{T}_3=0$ separately in each doublet. ConsequentlyThe linear trace isEquivalently, ${\mathrm{tr}}_{L}Q=3(2/3-1/3)+(0-1)=0$. This proves cancellation of the mixed weak-hypercharge gauge anomaly within one generation.

The one-generation hypercharge anomaly traces for the cubic condition areThus both required anomaly differences vanish generation by generation. The right-handed subtraction is important: counting all physical fields with the same chirality sign would not give the cubic cancellation.

Write every fermion as a left-handed Weyl field. One Standard Model generation then haswith an optional neutral ${\nu }_R^c:(1,1{)}_0$. The purely colored anomaly vanishes becauseThe mixed non-Abelian-hypercharge coefficients areThe cubic hypercharge anomaly also cancels:as does the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly,There is no perturbative cubic $SU(2)$ anomaly because its representations are pseudoreal. There are four left-handed weak doublets after counting the three colors of $Q_L$, so the global Witten SU(2) anomaly also vanishes. This proves Standard Model anomaly cancellation generation by generation.

The equality of proton and positron charges follows from the same constraints. Let the Higgs hypercharge be $Y_H=1/2$. Gauge-invariant Yukawa interactions implywhile cancellation of $[SU(2{)}_L{]}^{2}U(1{)}_Y$ gives $3Y_Q+Y_L=0$. Since electric charge is $Q=T^3+Y$,Thereforeshowing how anomaly cancellation, together with Yukawa gauge invariance and the normalization fixed by the neutral Higgs vacuum, enforces this instance of charge quantization.