We propose that all light fermionic degrees of freedom, including the Standard Model (SM) fermions and all possible light beyond-the-standard-model fields, are chiral with respect to some spontaneously broken abelian gauge symmetry. Hypercharge, for example, plays this role for the SM fermions. We introduce a new symmetry, $U(1)_{ u}$, for all new light fermionic states. Anomaly cancellations mandate the existence of several new fermion fields with nontrivial $U(1)_{ u}$ charges. We develop a concrete model of this type, for which we show that (i) some fermions remain massless after $U(1)_{ u}$ breaking -- similar to SM neutrinos -- and (ii) accidental global symmetries translate into stable massive particles -- similar to SM protons. These ingredients provide a solution to the dark matter and neutrino mass puzzles assuming one also postulates the existence of heavy degrees of freedom that act as mediators between the two sectors. The neutrino mass mechanism described here leads to parametrically small Dirac neutrino masses, and the model also requires the existence of at least four Dirac sterile neutrinos. Finally, we describe a general technique to write down chiral-fermions-only models that are at least anomaly-free under a $U(1)$ gauge symmetry.
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