text:
# Constraints on the SU(3) Electroweak Model

## 1 Introduction

Unification of the standard model forces into a larger gauge symmetry is perhaps the most elegant physics beyond the Standard Model. Full unification of SU(3)c $`\times `$ SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y into a grand unified theory such as SU(5) simplifies the matter content of the model, determines the hypercharge normalization, and predicts gauge coupling unification. For the standard model, the combination of precision measurements of the low energy gauge couplings plus the non-observation of proton decay rule out all of the simplest non-supersymmetric grand unified theories. Given this disappointing result, it is natural to consider other alternatives, such as the partial unification of SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y into a larger group. Weinberg first considered unifying the electroweak gauge symmetries into SU(3) back in 1972 . The left-handed doublet plus the right-handed singlet leptons fit neatly into triplets of SU(3) . The U(1)Y normalization is fixed by the embedding into SU(3), which results in the famous prediction $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=1/4`$ at the scale of SU(3) breaking. However, quarks cannot be simply embedded into SU(3) representations due to their fractional hypercharge.

Recently there has been renewed interest in predicting $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=1/4`$ through new gauge dynamics that appears not too far above the electroweak scale . The proposal by Dimopoulos and Kaplan  embeds the electroweak SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y into a larger product gauge symmetry SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) in which quarks and leptons are charged under just the high energy SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1). The larger gauge structure is spontaneously broken down to the electroweak model by the vev of a scalar field $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ transforming under all of the gauge groups. By choosing a larger product gauge group that includes SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1), there is no difficulty in accommodating all quark and lepton hypercharges (since the quark and lepton hypercharges simply corresponds to their charges under the high energy U(1)). The price to be paid for this freedom is twofold: The normalization of hypercharge is unexplained, and there is no simplification of the matter content of the standard model. However, if the gauge couplings of the high energy SU(2) and U(1) groups are at least moderately large, the electroweak gauge couplings are determined primarily by SU(3)W with the Weinberg $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=1/4`$ prediction of the weak-to-hypercharge coupling ratio.

Since the minimal gauge extension to SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) has nothing to do with the U(1)Y normalization, the intersection of the SU(2)L and U(1)Y gauge couplings to any value at any scale is possible. Only when the high energy U(1) is embedded into a simple group at an even higher scale is the normalization fixed. The simplest possibility is that the U(1) embedded into an SU(2) group . This determines the U(1) normalization and fixes the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ field’s U(1) charge to be $`1/2`$. From this point on, we tacitly assume this assignment of U(1) charge to the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ field.

The breaking of SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) to the electroweak model results in eight new gauge bosons that obtain a mass of order $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ times gauge couplings, and four that become the electroweak gauge bosons. Integrating out the heavy gauge bosons results in new effective operators suppressed by squares of gauge boson masses that contribute to four-fermion processes and $`Z`$ pole observables . In this paper we calculate the mass spectrum and the low-energy effective Lagrangian of the SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) model and the resulting corrections to electroweak precision observables due to the the heavy gauge bosons.

We may gain some intuition as to what we might expect by remembering an older idea in which the left-handed quarks and left-handed leptons are charged under two different SU(2) gauge symmetries . In this “ununified standard model”, the scale of the SU(2)q $`\times `$ SU(2)l breaking was found to be significantly constrained by electroweak precision corrections . The limit on the matching scale rises dramatically for the case in which the leptonic coupling is taken to be much larger than the quark coupling $`g_lg_q`$. This is because the matching scale for the new gauge dynamics corresponds to the heaviest gauge boson, of order $`g_lu`$ where $`u`$ is the vev of a bidoublet scalar field that breaks SU(2)q $`\times `$ SU(2)l to SU(2)L.

It is this general observation suitably applied to the SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) model that significantly constrains the new gauge dynamics. We emphasize that the matching scale is by definition the scale at which the high energy theory including the full SU(3)W gauge symmetry is decomposed into the standard model SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y. Effective theory demands that this scale coincide with the scale of the heaviest gauge boson, since the full product gauge theory cannot be realized until all of the gauge bosons are propagating degrees of freedom. Broken gauge multiplets that are split in mass due to a hierarchy in gauge couplings are accounted for through threshold corrections to the renormalization group evolution of the electroweak gauge couplings.

The organization of this paper is as follows. In Sec. 2 we calculate the mass spectrum of the SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) broken to SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y. After integrating out the heavy gauge bosons, we calculate their tree-level effects on the masses and couplings between the electroweak gauge bosons and matter in Sec. 3. The resulting modifications to the electroweak theory are used to calculate the corrections to precision electroweak observables in Sec. 4, which are determined by just two parameters. We then perform a global fit of the new physics contributions to the experimental observables. The constraints on the new physics extracted from the fit imply constraints on the region of allowed SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) gauge couplings. This requires evolving the electroweak gauge couplings using the renormalization group equations with thresholds corrections that we calculate in Sec. 5. In Sec. 6 we discuss the phenomenology of the heavy gauge bosons. We focus on the electrically charged gauge bosons that do not couple to quarks and leptons, pointing out that they are only produced in pairs and that the lightest one does not decay. We estimate the cosmological abundance of these charged, stable relics and find that it is of order the critical density or larger. In addition to resulting cosmological difficulties, this is problematic in light of the strong experimental bounds on the abundance of charged stable particles through searches for heavy isotopes of ordinary nuclei. Finally, we conclude in Sec. 7.

## 2 Spectrum

The gauge group of the model is SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) with gauge couplings $`g_3`$, $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$, and $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$ respectively. The quarks and leptons are uncharged under SU(3)W, having the same quantum numbers under SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) as they do under SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y. The Higgs field is replaced by two scalars $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$. $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ is uncharged under SU(3)W, but with the same quantum numbers as the Higgs under SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1), while $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ transforms as $`(3,2,1/2)`$. At some high scale SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) is broken down to the electroweak group SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y by the vev

$`\mathrm{\Sigma }=\left(\begin{array}{cc}M& 0\\ 0& M\\ 0& 0\end{array}\right).`$ (4)
The gauge structure of this model is similar to the recently proposed deconstructed models where the Higgs is a pseudo-Goldstone boson .

The gauge bosons of the three groups mix to form the following representations of SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y: $`(3,0)(3,0)(1,0)(1,0)(2,3/2)(2,3/2)`$. We first consider the $`(3,0)`$ sector. These fields arise from the SU(2) gauge bosons $`\stackrel{~}{W}^a`$ and the $`A^{1,2,3}`$ gauge bosons of the SU(2) subgroup of SU(3)W. In the ($`A^a`$, $`\stackrel{~}{W}^a`$) basis (for $`a=1,2,3`$) the mass matrix is:

$`M^2\left(\begin{array}{cc}g_3^2& g_3\stackrel{~}{g}\\ g_3\stackrel{~}{g}& \stackrel{~}{g}^2\end{array}\right)`$ (7)
Thus the light and heavy mass eigenstates are:

$`W_L^a`$ $`=`$ $`c_\varphi A^as_\varphi \stackrel{~}{W}^a`$ (8)
$`W_H^a`$ $`=`$ $`s_\varphi A^a+c_\varphi \stackrel{~}{W}^a`$ (9)
with masses

$`M_{W_L}`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (10)
$`M_{W_H}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}^2+g_3^2}M`$ (11)
where

$`s_\varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{g_3}{\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}^2+g_3^2}}},c_\varphi ={\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{g}}{\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}^2+g_3^2}}}.`$ (12)
The SU(2) singlets arise from the U(1) gauge boson $`\stackrel{~}{B}`$ and the $`A^8`$ component of the SU(3)W gauge bosons. These will constitute the $`(1,0)`$ sector. The mass matrix in the ($`A^8`$,$`\stackrel{~}{B}`$) basis at the high scale is

$`M^2\left(\begin{array}{cc}\frac{1}{3}g_3^2& \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}g_3\stackrel{~}{g}^{}\\ \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}g_3\stackrel{~}{g}^{}& \stackrel{~}{g}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}\end{array}\right)`$ (15)
Thus the light and heavy mass eigenstates are:

$`B_L`$ $`=`$ $`c_\psi A^8s_\psi \stackrel{~}{B}`$ (16)
$`B_H`$ $`=`$ $`s_\psi A^8+c_\psi \stackrel{~}{B}`$ (17)
with masses

$`M_{B_L}`$ $`=`$ $`0`$ (18)
$`M_{B_H}`$ $`=`$ $`\sqrt{\stackrel{~}{g}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{g_3^2}{3}}}M`$ (19)
where

$`s_\psi ={\displaystyle \frac{g_3}{\sqrt{3\stackrel{~}{g}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}+g_3^2}}},c_\psi ={\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{3}\stackrel{~}{g}^{}}{\sqrt{3\stackrel{~}{g}^2+g_3^2}}}.`$ (20)
Finally we consider the $`(2,\pm 3/2)`$ sector that comes from the $`A^{4,5,6,7}`$ gauge bosons of SU(3)W. These fields have no SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) partners to mix with, and thus their mass is simply

$`M_i={\displaystyle \frac{g_3}{\sqrt{2}}}M.`$ (21)
Since $`g_3`$ is expected to be smaller than $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$, these gauge bosons will be substantially lighter than $`W_H^a`$ and $`B_H`$. These intermediate scale gauge bosons, however, do not have any direct couplings to quarks and leptons. Thus they would only be seen in processes involving virtual SM gauge bosons.

The effective gauge couplings of the SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y groups are:

$`g`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{g}s_\varphi `$ (22)
$`g^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}s_\psi .`$ (23)
The coupling of $`W_H^a`$ $`(B_H)`$ to quarks and leptons is $`\stackrel{~}{g}c_\varphi `$ $`(\stackrel{~}{g}^{}c_\psi )`$.

## 3 The Low-energy Effective Action

We now construct the effective theory below the mass scale of the heavy gauge bosons. Integrating out $`W_H^a`$ and $`B_H`$ induces additional operators in the effective theory. These operators modify the usual relations between the standard model parameters, and therefore their coefficients can be constrained from electroweak precision measurements. There are three types of operators that will be relevant for us: corrections of the coupling of the SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y gauge bosons to their corresponding currents, operators that are quadratic in the SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y gauge fields and quartic in the ordinary Higgs field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$, and four-fermion operators.

Exchanges of the heavy $`W_H^a`$ and $`B_H`$ gauge bosons give the following operators which are quadratic in the light gauge fields:

$`_2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{g^2c_\varphi ^4}{8M^2}}W_L^{a\mu }W_{\mu L}^a(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi })^2{\displaystyle \frac{g^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}c_\psi ^4}{8M^2}}B_L^\mu B_{\mu L}(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi })^2{\displaystyle \frac{g^2c_\psi ^4}{8M^2}}W_L^{a\mu }W_{\mu L}^b(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\sigma ^a\mathrm{\Phi })(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\sigma ^b\mathrm{\Phi })`$ (24)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{g^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}c_\varphi ^4}{8M^2}}B_L^\mu B_{\mu L}(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\sigma ^a\mathrm{\Phi })^2{\displaystyle \frac{gg^{}(c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4)}{4M^2}}W_L^{a\mu }B_{\mu L}(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\sigma ^a\mathrm{\Phi })(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }),`$
where $`\sigma ^a`$ are the Pauli $`\sigma `$ matrices. For example, the first term arises in the following way. The kinetic term of the Higgs field $`(D_\mu \mathrm{\Phi })^{}D^\mu \mathrm{\Phi }`$ contains the coupling

$`_{\stackrel{~}{W}^2\mathrm{\Phi }^2}={\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{g}^2}{4}}\stackrel{~}{W}_\mu ^a\stackrel{~}{W}^{b\mu }(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\sigma ^a\sigma ^b\mathrm{\Phi }).`$ (25)
Expressing $`\stackrel{~}{W}^a=c_\varphi W_H^as_\varphi W_L^a`$ we obtain a coupling between the heavy and light gauge bosons of the form

$`_{W_LW_H\mathrm{\Phi }^2}={\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{g}^2s_\varphi c_\varphi }{4}}(W_{\mu L}^aW_H^{b\mu }+W_{\mu L}^bW_H^{a\mu })(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\sigma ^a\sigma ^b\mathrm{\Phi })={\displaystyle \frac{\stackrel{~}{g}^2s_\varphi c_\varphi }{2}}W_{\mu L}^aW_H^{a\mu }(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }).`$ (26)
The first term in $`_2`$ then arises by integrating out the heavy gauge boson $`W_H^{a\mu }`$ by taking its equation of motion and expressing it in terms of the light fields. The operators in (24) are the ones that give corrections to the light gauge boson masses after $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ gets a vev. Thus after $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ gets the usual vev:

$`\mathrm{\Phi }=\left(\begin{array}{c}0\\ v/\sqrt{2}\end{array}\right),`$ (29)
and including the effects of the higher dimension operators (24), we find that the mass of the $`W`$ is

$`M_W^2`$ $`=`$ $`g^2{\displaystyle \frac{v^2}{4}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{c_\varphi ^4v^2}{4M^2}}\right)`$ (30)
The mass matrix in the ($`W_L^3`$,$`B_L`$) basis is:

$`{\displaystyle \frac{v^2}{4}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{(c_\psi ^4+c_\varphi ^4)v^2}{4M^2}}\right)\left(\begin{array}{cc}g^2& gg^{}\\ gg^{}& g^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}\end{array}\right)`$ (33)
So the mass of the $`Z`$ is

$`M_Z^2`$ $`=`$ $`(g^2+g^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}){\displaystyle \frac{v^2}{4}}\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{(c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4)v^2}{4M^2}}\right)`$ (34)
In addition, exchanges of $`W_H^a`$ and $`B_H`$ give corrections to the coupling of the SU(2)L $`\times `$ U(1)Y gauge bosons to their corresponding currents and additional four-fermion operators:

$`_\mathrm{c}`$ $`=`$ $`gW_{L\mu }^aJ^{a\mu }\left(1(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }){\displaystyle \frac{c_\varphi ^4}{2M^2}}\right)+g^{}B_{L\mu }J_Y^\mu \left(1(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\mathrm{\Phi }){\displaystyle \frac{c_\psi ^4}{2M^2}}\right)`$ (35)
$`gW_{L\mu }^aJ_Y^\mu (\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\sigma ^a\mathrm{\Phi }){\displaystyle \frac{c_\psi ^4}{2M^2}}g^{}B_{L\mu }J^{a\mu }(\mathrm{\Phi }^{}\sigma ^a\mathrm{\Phi }){\displaystyle \frac{c_\varphi ^4}{2M^2}}J_\mu ^aJ^{a\mu }{\displaystyle \frac{c_\varphi ^4}{2M^2}}J_\mu ^YJ^{Y\mu }{\displaystyle \frac{c_\psi ^4}{2M^2}}`$
Using this expression we can now evaluate the effective Fermi coupling $`G_F`$ in this theory. The simplest way to obtain the answer for this is by integrating out the $`W_L`$ bosons from the theory by adding the W mass term to (35). The expression we obtain for the effective four-fermion operator is

$$\frac{g^2}{2M_W^2}J^{+\mu }J_\mu ^{}(1\frac{c_\varphi ^4v^2}{2M^2})J^{+\mu }J_\mu ^{}\frac{c_\varphi ^4}{2M^4}=2\sqrt{2}G_FJ^{+\mu }J_\mu ^{},$$
(36)
where $`J^\pm =\frac{1}{2}(J^1\pm iJ^2)`$. Plugging in the correction to the W mass we obtain that $`G_F`$ in this model is uncorrected, that is

$$G_F=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}v^2}.$$
(37)
This is in fact not a coincidence, but a general result in such models which was first derived in . The ($`A^a`$, $`\stackrel{~}{W}^a`$) mass matrix can be written as a product of the coupling matrix $`G`$ and the matrix of vevs $`V`$:

$`^2=GV^2G,`$ (38)
where $`G=\mathrm{diag}(g_3,\stackrel{~}{g})`$ and the matrix of squared vevs is,

$`V^2=M^2\left(\begin{array}{cc}1& 1\\ 1& (1+\frac{v^2}{4M^2})\end{array}\right).`$ (41)
Then the charged current interactions at zero momentum transfer are given by,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}J_\mu ^{}G^2GJ^\mu ={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}J_\mu ^{}V^2J^\mu ,`$ (42)
where $`J^\mu =(0,j_q^\mu +j_l^\mu )`$ is the charged quark $`(j_q^\mu )`$ and lepton $`(j_l^\mu )`$ current vector in the (SU(3)W, SU(2)) basis. Evaluating,

$`V^2={\displaystyle \frac{4}{v^2}}\left(\begin{array}{cc}(1+\frac{v^2}{4M^2})& \hfill 1\\ 1& \hfill 1\end{array}\right).`$ (45)
We find that the charged current four-fermion interaction is given by,

$`{\displaystyle \frac{2}{v^2}}(j_q^\mu +j_l^\mu )^2.`$ (46)
From this we read off that $`G_F`$ is given by (37) and does not receive tree level corrections from the SU(3)W interactions.

Finally, to fix all SM parameters we need to identify the photon and the neutral-current couplings from (35):

$`_{\mathrm{nc}}=`$ $`eA_\mu J_Q^\mu +{\displaystyle \frac{e}{sc}}Z_\mu \left[J^{3\mu }\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{(c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4)v^2}{4M^2}}\right)J_Q^\mu \left(s^2{\displaystyle \frac{c_\psi ^4v^2}{4M^2}}\right)\right]`$ (47)
$`J^{3\mu }J_\mu ^3{\displaystyle \frac{c_\varphi ^4}{2M^2}}(J^3J_Q)^\mu (J^3J_Q)_\mu {\displaystyle \frac{c_\psi ^4}{2M^2}}.`$
Here $`e=gg^{}/\sqrt{g^2+g^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}}`$ as in the standard model, thus there is no correction to the expression of the electric charge $`e`$ compared to the SM. Similarly to the evaluation of the effective $`G_F`$, we can calculate the low-energy effective four-fermion interactions from the neutral currents. The result we obtain is

$`_{NC}^{(4f)}={\displaystyle \frac{2}{v^2}}(J^3s^2J_Q)^2{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2M^2}}(J_Q)^2\left(s^4(c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4)2s^2c_\psi ^4+c_\psi ^4\right),`$ (48)
where the first term is just the SM result, while the second term is the correction. Note that the correction term to the four-fermion interactions contains only the charged currents, and so it does not contribute to neutrino scattering processes or atomic parity violation.

## 4 The Contributions to Electroweak Observables

To relate our parameters to observables we use the standard definition of $`\mathrm{sin}\theta _0`$ from the $`Z`$ pole ,

$`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _0\mathrm{cos}^2\theta _0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\pi \alpha (M_Z^2)}{\sqrt{2}G_FM_Z^2}},`$ (49)
$`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _0`$ $`=`$ $`0.23105\pm 0.00008`$ (50)
where $`\alpha (M_Z^2)^1=128.92\pm 0.03`$ is the running SM fine-structure constant evaluated at $`M_Z`$ . We can relate this measured value with the bare value in this class of models,

$`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _0=s^2+{\displaystyle \frac{s^2c^2}{c^2s^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{(c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4)v^2}{4M^2}},`$ (51)
which is obtained by considering all corrections to (49) in the usual way (see ). Also, we have the simple result that the running couplings defined by Kennedy and Lynn  which appear in $`Z`$-pole asymmetries are the same as the bare couplings:

$`s_{}^2(q^2)=s^2,e_{}^2(q^2)=e^2.`$ (52)
In order to compare to experiments, we can relate our corrections of the neutral-current couplings to the generalized modifications of the $`Z`$ couplings as defined by Burgess et al. ,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=\frac{e}{sc}\underset{i}{}\overline{f}_i\gamma ^\mu (\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_L^{ff}\gamma _L+\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_R^{ff}\gamma _R)f_iZ_\mu ,$$
(53)
where

$$\frac{1}{sc}=\frac{1}{s_0c_0}\left[1+\frac{(c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4)v^2}{8M^2}\right].$$
(54)
From (47) we obtain that111Note that the correction to the $`Z`$ coupling $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{ff}`$ should not be confused with the high energy SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) gauge couplings $`\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$.

$$\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{ff}=\frac{v^2}{4M^2}\left[q^fc_\psi ^4t_3^f(c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4)\right].$$
(55)
For the individual couplings this implies

$`\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_L^{uu}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4}{24M^2}}v^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}(3c_1+c_2),\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_R^{uu}={\displaystyle \frac{c_\psi ^4}{6M^2}}v^2={\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}}c_2,`$
$`\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_L^{dd}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4}{24M^2}}v^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{6}}(3c_1+c_2),\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_R^{dd}={\displaystyle \frac{c_\psi ^4}{12M^2}}v^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{3}}c_2,`$
$`\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_L^{ee}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{c_\varphi ^4c_\psi ^4}{8M^2}}v^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(c_1c_2),\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_R^{ee}={\displaystyle \frac{c_\psi ^4}{4M^2}}v^2=c_2,`$
$`\delta \stackrel{~}{g}_L^{\nu \nu }`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{c_\varphi ^4+c_\psi ^4}{8M^2}}v^2={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(c_1+c_2),`$ (56)
where $`\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{\mu \mu }=\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{\tau \tau }=\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{ee}`$, and similarly $`\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{tt}=\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{cc}=\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{uu}`$, $`\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{bb}=\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{ss}=\delta \stackrel{~}{g}^{dd}`$. We have introduced the notation

$$c_1=\frac{c_\varphi ^4v^2}{4M^2},c_2=\frac{c_\psi ^4v^2}{4M^2}.$$
(57)
In the Appendix we calculate the shifts in the electroweak precision observables in terms of the parameters $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ defined above. We perform a two parameter global fit to the precision electroweak data given in Table 1 assuming a 115 GeV Higgs (as described in ) , and find that $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ are tightly constrained as demonstrated in Fig. 1. The best fit in $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ has $`\chi ^230.5`$ with 23 observables. (We note in passing that shifting the Higgs to heavier masses worsens the best $`\chi ^2`$ fit to the data.) We will translate these constraints into bounds on $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$ and the relevant mass scales, after discussing the running of the gauge couplings.

## 5 Constraints on the High Energy Parameters

We now relate the constraints on $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$ to the parameters of the SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) theory. At the matching scale $`M_u=\mathrm{Max}[M_{W_H},M_{B_H}]`$, the high energy gauge couplings are related to the electroweak couplings through

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{g^2(M_u)}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{g_3^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{g}^2}}`$ (58)
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{g^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}(M_u)}}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{3}{g_3^2}}+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\stackrel{~}{g}^{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}}}.`$ (59)
As long as $`g_3\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$ one expects the prediction $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W=1/4`$ to approximately be satisfied. This is similar to the approximate SU(5) unification in the models in .

There are four unknowns (three gauge couplings and the matching scale) with two constraint equations. The electroweak couplings evaluated at the matching scale are related to the well-measured couplings at $`M_Z`$ through the one-loop renormalization group equations

$$\frac{1}{g_a^2(M_u)}=\frac{1}{g_a^2(M_Z)}\frac{1}{8\pi ^2}\left[b_a\mathrm{ln}\frac{M_u}{M_Z}+\stackrel{~}{b}_a\mathrm{ln}\frac{M_u}{m_t}+(d_a+e_a)\mathrm{ln}\frac{M_u}{M_i}\right],$$
(60)
where $`b_a=(53/9,22/6)`$, $`\stackrel{~}{b}_a=(17/18,1/2)`$, $`d_a=(33,11/3)`$, and $`e_a=(3/2,1/2)`$ for $`a=[\mathrm{U}(1)_Y,\mathrm{SU}(2)_L]`$. The last term represents the threshold correction from two contributions. The first ($`d_a`$) corresponds to the intermediate scale gauge bosons with mass $`M_i=g_3M/\sqrt{2}`$ (that do not mix with the SM gauge bosons). The second ($`e_a`$) corresponds to all of the components of the scalar field $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ that are not eaten by $`W_H`$ or $`B_H`$. This includes the four Goldstone bosons eaten by the intermediate scale gauge bosons and four uneaten scalars that we assume have mass $`M_i`$. We also note that these sharp threshold corrections at the masses of heavy fields are only approximate, but additional corrections do not significantly modify our results.

The high energy theory is therefore completely determined by $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$. Any given point in this two-parameter space has a definite prediction for the matching scale $`M_u`$, the SU(3)W coupling, and $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$. It is straightforward to determine the region of $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$-$`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$ space that is excluded by large contributions to the electroweak precision observables, which we show in Fig. 2.

Several comments are in order. Small couplings $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}<0.5`$ are forbidden since there is no solution to the matching conditions (58)-(59). Couplings larger than $`3`$ are not shown since perturbation theory begins to break down. We find that the matching (or unification) scale must be larger than $`4`$ TeV throughout the physically acceptable region, and larger than $`11`$ TeV for the region $`\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}^{}>1`$.

It is clear from Fig. 2 that small changes in the high energy gauge couplings $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$, $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$ result in large changes to the matching scale. Consider for example what is needed to obtain a matching scale of order $`20`$ TeV. The region of interest comprises $`0.5<\stackrel{~}{g}^{}<1.4`$, within which the *a priori* independent coupling $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ must be fine-tuned to approximately satisfy $`\stackrel{~}{g}\sqrt{3}\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$. Along this line, the threshold corrections to $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W(M_u)`$ accidentally cancel out. However, the degree of fine-tuning needed for a fixed matching scale varies quite significantly with $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}`$. We can quantify this by calculating the fractional shift in the high energy couplings that corresponds to a given fractional shift in the matching scale, shown in Fig. 3.

For example, holding $`M_u`$ fixed within 10% requires tuning $`\stackrel{~}{g}`$ to be within ($`0.6\%`$, $`1.2\%`$, $`2.6\%`$) for $`\stackrel{~}{g}^{}=`$ ($`0.75`$, $`1`$, $`1.25`$). This means that arranging that new physics be close to our bounds requires significant fine-tuning of the high energy gauge couplings. This fine tuning can be relaxed, but only by simultaneously going to moderate gauge couplings $`\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}^{}>1`$ and matching scales well beyond our bounds, in the tens of TeV.

## 6 Gauge Boson Phenomenology

Directly resolving the physics of the matching scale is clearly well out-of-reach for future colliders (Tevatron, LHC, LC). For the region of physical interest ($`g,g^{}>1`$) the heavy gauge bosons which couple directly to quarks and leptons have masses $`M_{W_H}>11`$ TeV, $`M_{B_H}>6`$ TeV. However, there are four gauge bosons, $`A^4`$-$`A^7`$ that are generally significantly lighter than the heaviest gauge bosons $`W_H`$ and $`B_H`$. This is shown in Fig. 2(b) where the contours correspond to the intermediate gauge boson mass $`M_i`$. $`A^4`$-$`A^7`$ do not couple to the SM fermions. Hence, they do not contribute at tree-level to electroweak precision observables, which is why they are permitted to be much lighter than the heavy mixed states $`W_H`$ and $`B_H`$.

The electroweak quantum numbers of $`A^4`$$`A^7`$ are $`(2,3/2)`$ and $`(2,3/2)`$, which means they have electric charges $`\pm 2,\pm 1`$. They can only be produced in pairs through couplings to the standard model gauge bosons. This is because they are SU(2)L doublets that do not couple to the standard model matter fields, so that every interaction vertex must contain at least two of these fields to be gauge invariant. Therefore in order to observe these particles one would have to pair produce them. For gauge couplings $`\stackrel{~}{g},\stackrel{~}{g}^{}>1`$, their mass is larger than $`2.5`$ TeV, and so they are unlikely to be produced in sufficient quantities to be detected above backgrounds at the LHC. Similarly, in the minimal model without any new matter charged under SU(3)W, these gauge bosons cannot decay. Again this is a consequence of the coupling by pairs to the electroweak gauge bosons that are triplets or singlets. This “doublet conservation” is not broken by electroweak symmetry breaking since the Higgs does not couple to these gauge bosons. The only other interaction is potentially with the physical (3,0), (1,0) components of the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ scalar, but these also cannot be decay modes for the same reason. Even adding non-renormalizable operators to the theory would not change this situation. The reason for this is conservation of the strange color $`s`$ (the third color of the SU(3) group). This is not broken by the $`\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ vev, and gauge interactions leave the combination $`s\overline{s}`$ invariant. This is a result of discrete symmetries of the model ($`A^\mu A^\mu ,\mathrm{\Sigma }\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ and the SU(3) group element diag(-1,-1,1)), the product of which remains unbroken. For a decay mode of the $`A^{4,\mathrm{},7}`$ gauge bosons $`s\overline{s}=\pm 1`$ in the initial state, but is zero in any kinematically allowed final state, so there is no allowed decay mode.

Electrically charged, stable particles can lead to severe cosmological problems . In fact, an order of magnitude estimate  shows that these $`A^{4,\mathrm{},7}`$ gauge bosons would have a relic density much larger than the critical density, assuming their mass is of order $`M_i=2`$ TeV, and the annihilation cross section is of order $`\alpha ^2/M_i^2`$. This is obtained using the simple estimate  for the relic density

$$\mathrm{\Omega }h^2\frac{7.7\times 10^{38}\mathrm{cm}^2}{\sigma v},$$
(61)
where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the fractional energy density compared to the critical density, $`h`$ is the Hubble constant in units of $`100`$ km/s/Mpc, and $`\sigma v`$ is the average annihilation cross section that we estimate to be of order $`\alpha ^2/M_i^2`$. The result for $`M_i=2`$ TeV is $`\mathrm{\Omega }15`$. Thus these particles may overclose the Universe. But, there is an even stronger experimental constraint on the relic density. Stringent bounds on the relative abundances of new charged stable particles have been set by searches for heavy isotopes of ordinary nuclei. The typical relative abundance obtained for these charged gauge bosons is of the order $`n_{A^{4,\mathrm{},7}}/n_{nucleons}10^1`$. Searches for heavy isotopes , however, typically set a bound on this abundance of the order $`n_{A^{4,\mathrm{},7}}/n_{nucleons}<10^{15}10^{20}`$. This suggests that the presence of these stable charged gauge bosons $`A^{4,\mathrm{},7}`$ is excluded.

One could try to avoid this constraint by adding light matter charged under just the SU(3)W, to which the charged gauge bosons could decay. The difficulty with this approach is that the new matter automatically has electroweak quantum numbers and is therefore not immune to experimental constraints. One possibility is a vector-like pair of SU(3)W triplets unrelated to the SM matter. But this is both theoretically unappealing (why is the vector-like triplet mass scale near the electroweak scale?) as well as being constrained by electroweak measurements. In addition, a stable particle would still remain in the spectrum, since the conservation of the strange color introduced above requires that the lightest of the particles charged under this symmetry be stable. Generically, this particle will be charged under the unbroken U(1)EM. In this case the mass of the stable particle could be much smaller than before ($`100`$ GeV instead of TeV) and thus might not overclose the Universe. However the bound from isotope searches would be difficult to evade even in this case.

Another choice might be to assume some or all of the leptons are SU(3)W triplets. This causes SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) anomalies, and so yet more matter must be added to the model just to cure this problem. (Anomaly cancellation was also a generic problem in the “ununified standard model” .) Furthermore, new operators would exist in the low energy effective theory affecting the (SU(3)W triplet) lepton couplings once $`A^4`$-$`A^7`$ are integrated out. There is every reason to expect electroweak observables would then place as strong a constraint on the mass of these gauge bosons as we found on the mass of $`W_H`$ and $`B_H`$. This means that the lower bound on the matching scale would be increased to of order 30 TeV.

Thus, we find that the “minimal” SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1) idea has a potentially serious cosmological obstacle in the form of heavy, stable, charged gauge bosons. The solutions to this problem involve adding new light matter that is charged under the SU(3)W group, but this new sector is expected to be strongly constrained by electroweak precision measurements.

## 7 Conclusions

We have studied constraints on the recently proposed SU(3)$`{}_{W}{}^{}\times `$SU(2)$`\times `$U(1) electroweak model. By integrating out the heavy gauge bosons we calculated the low energy effective action in this model. We identified the corrections to the masses and couplings of standard model fields. This allowed us to calculate the corrections to the electroweak observables in this model, from which we performed a global fit to current experimental data. By fixing the value of the electric charge and $`\mathrm{sin}^2\theta _W`$, the model was specified in terms of just two parameters. We found the excluded region in the space of SU(2) and U(1) couplings, and found that for the physically interesting region the unification scale is bounded to be larger than 11 TeV.

We also pointed out there are stable multi-TeV scale gauge bosons that are electrically charged, leading to cosmological difficulties. These gauge bosons would have been produced in the early universe, and we found that their present-day relic density would be larger than the critical density, and so would overclose the Universe. Furthermore, there are considerably stronger experimental constraints on the relic density of stable, charged particles coming from searches for heavy isotopes of nuclei. This suggests that modifications to the minimal model are needed to allow the gauge boson to decay. The simplest idea of allowing leptons or additional matter to transform under SU(3)W lead to further model-building difficulties (e.g. anomaly cancellation) and experimental constraints (new contributions to precision electroweak observables).

## Acknowledgments

We thank J. Erler for providing us the SM predictions used in our fit. GDK thanks T. Plehn and D. Zeppenfeld for discussions. JE and JT thank A. de Gouvea for comments. The research of C.C. is supported in part by the NSF, and in part by the DOE OJI grant DE-FG02-01ER41206. The research of J.E. and J.T. is supported by the US Department of Energy under contract W-7405-ENG-36. The research of G.D.K. is supported by the US Department of Energy under contract DE-FG02-95ER40896.

## Appendix A: Predictions for Electroweak Observables

In this appendix we give the predictions for the shifts in the electroweak precision observables as a result of the new gauge dynamics SU(3)W $`\times `$ SU(2) $`\times `$ U(1). The electroweak observables depend on only two parameters, $`c_1`$ and $`c_2`$. Using the results given in  as well as the low-energy $`\nu e`$ couplings:

$$g_{eV}(\nu e\nu e)=2\left(s^2\frac{1}{4}\right),g_{eA}(\nu e\nu e)=\frac{1}{2}.$$

we find the following results:

$`\mathrm{\Gamma }_Z`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\mathrm{\Gamma }_Z\right)_{SM}\left(10.89c_1+0.17c_2\right)`$
$`R_e`$ $`=`$ $`\left(R_e\right)_{SM}\left(1+0.082c_1+0.91c_2\right)`$
$`R_\mu `$ $`=`$ $`\left(R_\mu \right)_{SM}\left(1+0.082c_1+0.91c_2\right)`$
$`R_\tau `$ $`=`$ $`\left(R_\tau \right)_{SM}\left(1+0.082c_1+0.91c_2\right)`$
$`\sigma _h`$ $`=`$ $`\left(\sigma _h\right)_{SM}\left(10.0087c_10.096c_2\right)`$
$`R_b`$ $`=`$ $`\left(R_b\right)_{SM}\left(10.018c_10.20c_2\right)`$
$`R_c`$ $`=`$ $`\left(R_c\right)_{SM}\left(1+0.035c_1+0.39c_2\right)`$
$`A_{FB}^e`$ $`=`$ $`\left(A_{FB}^e\right)_{SM}+0.18c_1+2.0c_2`$
$`A_{FB}^\mu `$ $`=`$ $`\left(A_{FB}^\mu \right)_{SM}+0.18c_1+2.0c_2`$
$`A_{FB}^\tau `$ $`=`$ $`\left(A_{FB}^\tau \right)_{SM}+0.18c_1+2.0c_2`$
$`A_\tau (P_\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`\left(A_\tau (P_\tau )\right)_{SM}+0.78c_1+8.6c_2`$
$`A_e(P_\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`\left(A_e(P_\tau )\right)_{SM}+0.78c_1+8.6c_2`$
$`A_{FB}^b`$ $`=`$ $`\left(A_{FB}^b\right)_{SM}+0.54c_1+6.0c_2`$
$`A_{FB}^c`$ $`=`$ $`\left(A_{FB}^c\right)_{SM}+0.42c_1+4.7c_2`$
$`A_{LR}`$ $`=`$ $`\left(A_{LR}\right)_{SM}+0.78c_1+8.6c_2`$
$`M_W`$ $`=`$ $`\left(M_W\right)_{SM}\left(1+0.43c_1+1.4c_2\right)`$
$`M_W/M_Z`$ $`=`$ $`\left(M_W/M_Z\right)_{SM}\left(1+0.43c_1+1.4c_2\right)`$
$`g_L^2(\nu N\nu X)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_L^2(\nu N\nu X)\right)_{SM}+0.25(c_1+c_2)`$
$`g_R^2(\nu N\nu X)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_R^2(\nu N\nu X)\right)_{SM}0.085(c_1+c_2)`$
$`g_{eV}(\nu e\nu e)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_{eV}(\nu e\nu e)\right)_{SM}0.66(c_1+c_2)`$
$`g_{eA}(\nu e\nu e)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(g_{eA}(\nu e\nu e)\right)_{SM}`$
$`Q_W(Cs)`$ $`=`$ $`\left(Q_W(Cs)\right)_{SM}+73(c_1+c_2)`$
We also give in Table 1 the experimental data  and the SM predictions used for our fit.