Gauge Theories with Nonunitary Parallel Transporters: a Soluble Higgs Model *

It has been proposed to abandon the requirement that parallel transporters in gauge theories are unitary (or pseudoorthogonal). This leads to a geometric interpretation of Vierbein fields as parts of gauge fields, and nonunitary parallel transport in extra directions yields Higgs fields. In such theories, the holonomy group H is larger than the gauge group G. Here we study a 1-dimensional model with fermions which retains only the extra dimension, and which is soluble in the sense that its renormalization group flow may be exactly computed, with G = SU(2) and noncompact H ⊆ GL(2,C), or G = U(2), H = GL(2,C). In all cases the asymptotic behavior of the Higgs potential is computed, and with one possible exception for G = SU(2), H = GL(2,C), there is a flow of the action from an UV-fix point which describes a SU(2)-gauge theory with unitary parallel transporters, to a IR-fixpoint. We explain how a splitting of the masses of fermions of different flavor can arise through spontaneous symmetry breaking. ∗Work supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft