Complex Spinors and Unified Theories

Abstract

In this paper delivered by Murray Gell-Mann at the Stony Brook Supergravity Workshop in 1979, several paths to unification are discussed, from N=8 supergravity to $SU_5$, $SO_{10}$, and $E_6$. Generalizations of $SO_{10}$ to spinor representations of larger groups are introduced. A natural mechanism for generating tiny neutrino masses is proposed in the context of $SO_{10}$, and finally, focus on $SU_3$ rather than $SU_2$ or $SO_3$ family symmetries is noted.