Algebraic backgrounds: a framework for noncommutative Kaluza-Klein theory

Abstract: We investigate the representation of diffeomorphisms in Connes' Spectral Triples formalism. By encoding the metric and spin structure in a moving frame, it is shown on the paradigmatic example of spin semi-Riemannian manifolds that the bimodule of noncommutative 1-forms $\Omega^1$ is an invariant structure in addition to the chirality, real structure and Krein product. Adding $\Omega^1$ and removing the Dirac operator from an indefinite Spectral Triple we obtain a structure which we call an \emph{algebraic background}. All the Dirac operators compatible with this structure then form the configuration space of a noncommutative Kaluza-Klein theory. In the case of the Standard Model, this configuration space is stricty larger than the one obtained from the fluctuations of the metric, and contains in addition to the usual gauge fields the $Z_{B-L}'$-boson, a complex scalar field $\sigma$, which is known to be required in order to obtain the correct Higgs mass in the Spectral Standard Model, and flavour changing fields. The latter are invariant under automorphisms and can be removed without breaking the symmetries. It is remarkable that, starting from the conventional Standard Model algebra ${\mathbb C}\oplus {\mathbb H}\oplus M_3({\mathbb C})$, the "accidental" $B-L$ symmetry is necessarily gauged in this framework.