Pii: 0031-9163(64)90711-5

One of the r e c u r r e n t d r e a m s in e l e m e n t a r y p a r t i c l e s phys ics i s that of a poss ib le fundamenta l synthes is between e l e c t r o m a g n e t i s m and weak in te rac t ions [1]. The idea has i t s or ig in in the fol lowing shared c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s : 1) Both f o r c e s affect equal ly a l l f o r m s of m a t t e r leptons as wel l as hadrons. 2) Both a r e v e c t o r in cha r ac t e r . 3) Both (individually) p o s s e s s u n i v e r s a l coupling strengths. Since universality and vector character a re f e a t u r e s of a gauge theo ry these shared c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s sugges t that weak f o r c e s jus t l ike the e l e c t r o m a g n e t i c f o r c e s a r i s e f r o m a gauge pr inc ip le . T h e r e of cou r se a lso a r e profound d i f f e r ences : 1) E l e c t r o m a g n e t i c coupling s t rength is vas t ly d i f ferent f r o m the weak. Quant i ta t ive ly one may state it thus: if weak f o r c e s a re a s sumed to have been media ted by i n t e rmed ia t e bosons (W), the boson m a s s would have to equal 137 M,,, in o r d e r that the (d imens ion less ) weak co~lpling constant gw2/4~ equals e2/4~. In the seque l we a s s u m e jus t this. F o r the ou t rageous m a s s value i t se l f (M w ~ 137 M ) we P can offer no explanation. We seek however for a syn thes i s in t e r m s of a group s t r u c t u r e such that the r ema in ing d i f f e r ences , v iz : 2) Cont ras t ing s p a c e t i m e behaviour (V for e l e c t r omagne t i c v e r s u s V and A for weak). 3) And con t ras t ing AS and AI behav iours both appear as a spec t s of the same fundamenta l s y m met ry . Natura l ly fo r hadrons at l ea s t the group s t ruc tu re mus t be compat ib le with SU 3.