Family unification, exotic states and magnetic monopoles

The embedding in SU(4)×SU(3)×SU(3) of the well studied gauge groups SU(4)×SU(2)×SU(2) and SU(3)×SU(3)×SU(3) naturally leads to family unification as opposed to simple family replication. An inescapable consequence is the predicted existence of (exotic) color singlet states that carry fractional electric charge. The corresponding magnetic monopoles carry multiple Dirac magnetic charge, can be relatively light (∼107–1013 GeV), and may be present in the galaxy not far below the Parker bound.