Towards a unified gauge theory of gravitational and strong interactions

We study the space-time properties of leptons and hadrons and find it necessary to extend general relativity to the gauge theory based on the four-dimensional affine group. This group translates and deforms the tetrads of the locally Minkowskian space-time. Its conserved currents, momentum, and hypermomentum, act as sources in the two field equations of gravity. A Lagrangian quadratic in torsion and curvature allows for the propagation of two independent gauge fields: translationale-gravity mediated by the tetrad coefficients, and deformational -gravity mediated by the connection coefficients. For macroscopic mattere-gravity coincides with general relativity up to the post-Newtonian approximation of fourth order. For microscopic matter -gravity represents a strong Yang-Mills type interaction. In the linear approximation, for a static source, a confinement potential is found.This essay received an honorable mention (1979) from the Gravity Research Foundation.-Ed.