Gauge theories of weak interactions with left-right symmetry and the structure of neutral currents

Abstract

Failure to detect parity-violating effects in atomic transitions by Oxford and Washington groups would appear to rule out the Weinberg-Salam $\mathrm{SU}\mathrm{}\left(2\right)\mathrm{}\otimes \mathrm{U}\mathrm{}\left(1\right)\mathrm{}$ model as well as any variation of it that respects natural conservation laws for charm and strangeness to order $\alpha$ $G_F$ (called "natural") and obeys quark-lepton symmetry. In this paper, a simple left-right-symmetric model based on the ${\mathrm{SU}\mathrm{}\left(2\right)\mathrm{}}_L\otimes {\mathrm{SU}\mathrm{}\left(2\right)\mathrm{}}_R\otimes \mathrm{U}\mathrm{}\left(1\right)\mathrm{}$ group with four and six quark flavors is analyzed and found to accomodate the results of the atomic experiments as well as the other features of neutral-current phenomena.