Anomalies, Weinberg angle and a noncommutative geometric description of the standard model

The conditions on weak hypercharge assignments of quarks and leptons that are imposed by the absence of chiral anomalies, are identical with the supertrace conditions that appear in descriptions of the minimal standard model based on noncommutative geometry. Even though in these approaches there is no more explicit symmetry in the electroweak sector than the well-known SU(2)LxU(1), the noncommutative, graded algebra characterized by the modified exterior (Cartan and discrete) derivative is stringent enough to fix - at the classical level - the Weinberg angle. With the usual fermion content of the standard model the value typical for grand unified theories is found. (orig.)