  Conventional particle theories such as the Standard Model have a number of
freely adjustable coupling constants and mass parameters, depending on the
symmetry algebra of the local gauge group and the representations chosen for
the spinor and scalar fields. There seems to be no physical principle to
determine these parameters as long as they stay within certain domains dictated
by the renormalization group. Here however, reasons are given to demand that,
when gravity is coupled to the system, local conformal invariance should be a
spontaneously broken exact symmetry. The argument has to do with the
requirement that black holes obey a complementarity principle relating ingoing
observers to outside observers, or equivalently, initial states to final
states. This condition fixes all parameters, including masses and the
cosmological constant. We suspect that only examples can be found where these
are all of order one in Planck units, but the values depend on the algebra
chosen. This paper combines findings reported in two previous preprints, and
puts these in a clearer perspective by shifting the emphasis towards the
implications for particle models.
