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Abstract:
In this thesis we introduce two new fundamental forces which couple to baryonic and
leptonic currents. We therefore extend the Standard Model by gauging baryon and lepton
number. First, we discuss the theories with the minimal number of new degrees of
freedom to have a consistent extension of the Standard Model. Thereby, we identify
two models with the same number of degrees of freedom but with different field content.
These new fields carry baryon and lepton number but are colorless. We call them
lepto-baryons. In addition, we introduce a mechanism to generate the observed baryon
asymmetry in the Universe in the context of gauged baryon and lepton number. The
lightest lepto-baryon is automatically stable and a viable dark matter candidate. In the
process of promoting baryon and lepton number to gauge symmetries we can accomplish
unification of the gauge interactions in four dimensons at 104 TeV consistent with
experimental limits.