The fall and the rise of Weyl gauge theory

Abstract

In 1918 Weyl introduced Weyl conformal geometry and its associated quadratic action which was the first gauge theory, of the Weyl group (of dilatations and Poincar\'e symmetry). The initial physical interpretation of his theory was however short-lived and led to the downfall of Weyl geometry as a physical theory. We review how this action was re-born into a physical Weyl quadratic gauge theory of gravity. This is the only (quadratic) gauge theory of a spacetime symmetry with a physical gauge boson, is Weyl anomaly-free, has {\it exact} geometric interpretation, with all scales of geometric origin, and generates Einstein-Hilbert action and a positive cosmological constant in its Stueckelberg broken phase. A more fundamental Weyl gauge theory is the Weyl-Dirac-Born-Infeld (WDBI) action of Weyl geometry, that is Weyl gauge invariant in arbitrary $d$ dimensions and that does not need a UV regulator (!), of which the (geometrically regularised) Weyl quadratic gauge theory is the leading order. For $d=4$ the WDBI action can include SM operators alongside gravitational terms into a unified description, both geometric and by the gauge principle, of SM and Einstein-Hilbert gravity, which are recovered in the leading order of this action.