Electromagnetic charges of quarks and leptons in anL-R symmetric model of the strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions

It is shown that if Goldstone particles are absent in a model of the strong and electroweak interactions based on the symmetry group G/sub L/xG/sub R/ (where G/sub L/,R = [SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1)]/sub L/,R) with a renormalized Higgs potential, the necessary electric charges of the quarks (Q/sub u/ = 2/3, Q/sub d/ = -1/3, Q/sub ν/ = 0, Q/sub e/ = -1) are unambiguously fixed. The phenomenological aspects of such a model are considered. A mechanism is proposed for the creation of small Dirac neutrino masses, related to the hierarchy of ''left'' and ''right'' mass scales in broken G/sub L/xG/sub R/ symmetry, which (in contrast to standard approaches) does not require the introduction of additional superheavy neutrinos [the result that we obtain is me-italicapprox.[m2(W+-/sub L/)/ m2(W+-/sub R/)]m/sub e/, where W+-/sub L/ and W+-/sub R/ are the charged weak bosons and m(W+-/sub R/)>>m(W+-/sub L/)]