O(5) x U(1) electroweak theory

An anomaly free O(5) x U(1) theory of electroweak interactions is described which provides a unified description of electroweak phenomena for two families of standard leptons and quarks. No ''new'' non-sequential type fermions of the standard model are introduced as has been the case for all past studies based on this group. The present scheme requires the introduction of two further charged and three more neutral gauge fields over and above the Wsup(+-), Z and photon fields of SU(2) x U(1) giving rise to new neutral and charged currents. In this note we outline our reasons for proposing the present electroweak scheme, give the basic structure of the model, discuss the symmetry breaking pattern which ensures that SU(2)sub(L) x U(1) is the low energy symmetry, point out the new interactions present in the extended framework and obtain limits on the masses of all the gauge fields. (author)