GUT

GUT is the acronym for Grand Unified Theory. This is a class of relativistic quantum field theories having a group of gauge symmetries sufficiently wide to unite QCD and the electroweak theory.

Constructed on the model of the latter they include a mechanism for Higgs type symmetry breaking that, at low energy / temperature, should allow the symmetry groups SU(3)SU(2)U(1) of the various interactions differentiated into three forces to be found from the breaking of the preceding force.

The most well known candidates are the groups SU(5) and SO(10) but they lead to phenomenological problems, such as the non-disintegration of the proton at the calculated rate, which require supersymmetry in order to remain viable candidates.