E7as a Universal Gauge Group

Abstract

The exceptional group $E_7$ is proposed as a spontaneously broken gauge group underlying a unified field theory of the strong, electromagnetic, and weak interactions. The resulting model, which has only one gauge coupling constant and only one multiplet of elementary fermions, is shown to be compatible with the phenomenology of weak and electromagnetic interactions, including $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilation and high-energy neutrino scattering.