English

Gravity and electroweak sector from symmetry breaking of an $SO(3,3)$ BF theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2026-03-31 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

An SO(3,3)SO(3,3) BF-type gauge theory is formulated on a six-dimensional spacetime of split signature (3,3)(3,3), interpreted as the pre-electroweak-symmetry-breaking phase. A MacDowell--Mansouri-type symmetry breaking to SU(2)×SU(2)SU(2)\times SU(2) is implemented, and the corresponding stabilizer and coset structures are computed. The curvature decomposes into chiral sectors, and effective tetrads are introduced using components of the higher-dimensional connection. The resulting left and right sectors are formulated as constrained BF/Plebanski-like theories with appropriate simplicity and reality conditions. The six-dimensional theory yields two overlapping four-dimensional Lorentzian sectors of opposite signature, related via gluing constraints across their intersection. In the first sector, the selfdual two-forms (Σ(+)\Sigma^{(+)}) satisfy simplicity constraints that select the non-degenerate branch and reproduce Einstein gravity. Subsequently, the SU(2)R×U(1)YdemU(1)demSU(2)_R\times U(1)_{Y{\rm dem}}\to U(1)_{\rm dem} breaking pattern is outlined which admits an ultra-soft regime consistent with current phenomenological bounds under sufficiently suppressed couplings. In the second sector, the antiself dual two-forms (Σ()\Sigma^{(-)}) satisfy analogous simplicity constraints, realizing weak gauge dynamics as gravity on the opposite-signature sector. Subsequently, the SU(2)LU(1)YSU(2)_L\otimes U(1)_Y electroweak symmetry is realized within the Yang--Mills branch of the BF theory which incorporates the standard Higgs mechanism SU(2)LU(1)YU(1)EMSU(2)_L\otimes U(1)_Y \to U(1)_{\mathrm{EM}}, recovering the conventional electroweak W±W^\pm, ZZ, and photon spectrum.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.19151,
  title  = {Gravity and electroweak sector from symmetry breaking of an $SO(3,3)$ BF theory},
  author = {P Samuel Wesley and Tejinder P. Singh and J. M. Isidro},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.19151},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

88 pages; refs. updated; appendix added