Narrow Results

This paper presents a critical historical review of the two main approaches to providing an understanding of the nature of the weak nuclear force via the Standard Model and the Generation Model of particle physics. The Standard Model is generally considered to be incomplete in the sense that it provides little understanding of several empirical observations: the Generation Model was developed to overcome several dubious assumptions made during the development of the Standard Model. This paper indicates that the Generation Model provides a more consistent understanding of the weak nuclear force than the earlier Standard Model.

A new composite model for leptons and quarks is presented. The model treats leptons and quarks as composites of three kinds of spin-½ particles (rishons), which belong to a fundamental triplet representation of a flavor SU(3) symmetry. A super-strong color-type force binds rishons together to form colorless leptons or quarks. Quarks display a valence property, which corresponds to the quark color of the Standard Model. Leptons have no valence property and are inert with respect to the super-strong color interaction. Both the strong color force and the weak interaction of the Standard Model are residual interactions of the super-strong color force in the new model.

The different interpretations of quark mixing involved in weak interaction processes in the Standard Model and the Generation Model are discussed with a view to obtaining a physical understanding of the Cabibbo angle and related quantities. It is proposed that hadrons are composed of mixed-quark states, with the quark mixing parameters being determined by the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements. In this model, protons and neutrons contain a contribution of about 5% and 10%, respectively, of strange valency quarks.

The "electroweak connection", which forms one of the cornerstones of the Standard Model of particle physics, is formulated within the framework of the Generation Model. It is shown that the electroweak connection can be derived assuming that the weak interactions are effective interactions rather than fundamental interactions, arising from a U(1)×SU(2) local gauge invariance, which is spontaneously broken by a Higgs field.

The origin of mass in the standard model of particle physics is discussed and some difficulties pointed out. An alternative model, the generation model, will be shown to lead to a different concept of mass: the mass of a body arises from the energy stored in the motion of its constituents, so that if a particle has mass, then it is composite. It is suggested that gravity is a residual interaction arising from the incomplete cancellation of the super-strong color interactions, which bind the fundamental constituents (rishons) of leptons and quarks.

It is shown that assuming mixed-quark states in hadrons suggests that the two pion decay of the long-lived neutral kaon may be described without CP violation. The rate of this decay relative to the decay into all charged modes is estimated quite accurately in terms of the Cabibbo-mixing angle.

A quantum theory of gravity, based upon a composite model of leptons and quarks, is presented. The model treats leptons and quarks as composites of three kinds of spin- particles (rishons) and/or their antiparticles. A strong color force, mediated by massless hypergluons, binds rishons and/or antirishons together to form colorless leptons or colored quarks, the fundamental particles of the Standard Model. The new model provides a qualitative understanding of the mass hierarchy of the three generations of leptons and quarks. An earlier conjecture that the residual interaction of the strong color force acting between any two colorless particles be identified with the corresponding gravitational interaction, is shown to lead approximately to Newton's law of gravitation.

This paper discusses the parity of charged pions. It is shown that the original determination of the parity of the negatively charged pion using the capture of negatively charged pions in deuterium to form two neutrons is not conclusive if the pion has a complex substructure. It is demonstrated that this experiment is compatible with the mixed-parity nature of the π^- arising in a recent composite model. A major consequence of this is that CP may be conserved in the system.

The paper discusses the parity of the neutral pion. It is shown that the recent determination of the parity of the neutral pion using the double Dalitz decay π⁰→e⁺e^-e⁺e^- is compatible with the mixed-parity nature of the neutral pion predicted by a recent composite model.

Galactic dark matter is matter hypothesized to account for the discrepancy of the mass of a galaxy determined from its gravitational effects, assuming the validity of Newton's law of universal gravitation, and the mass calculated from the "luminous matter", stars, gas, dust, etc. observed to be contained within the galaxy. The conclusive observation from the rotation curves of spiral galaxies that the mass discrepancy is greater, the larger the distance scales involved implies that either Newton's law of universal gravitation requires modification or considerably more mass (dark matter) is required to be present in each galaxy. Both the modification of Newton's law of gravitation and the hypothesis of the existence of considerable dark matter in a galaxy are discussed. It is shown that the Generation Model (GM) of particle physics, which leads to a modification of Newton's law of gravitation, is found to be essentially equivalent to that of Milgrom's modified Newtonian dynamics (MOND) theory, with the GM providing a physical understanding of the MOND theory. The continuing success of MOND theory in describing the extragalactic mass discrepancy problems constitutes a strong argument against the existence of undetected dark matter haloes, consisting of unknown nonbaryonic matter, surrounding spiral galaxies.

Within the framework of the Generation Model (GM) of particle physics, gravity is identified with the very weak, universal and attractive residual color interactions acting between the colorless particles of ordinary matter (electrons, neutrons and protons), which are composite structures. This gravitational interaction is mediated by massless vector bosons (hypergluons), which self-interact so that the interaction has two additional features not present in Newtonian gravitation: (i) asymptotic freedom and (ii) color confinement. These two additional properties of the gravitational interaction negate the need for the notions of both dark matter and dark energy.