Beyond standard gauge theory: Extended gauge and diffeomorphism symmetry and mass generation 1

The standard gauge theory for internal as well as space-time symmetries is revisited. Then we propose an extension of the gauge and diffeomorphism symmetry allowing for infinitely many (nonnull) Noether invariants parametrizing the field configurations. For internal groups, the inclusion of the gauge group parameters into the theory, as dynamical fields, permits a natural mass-generating mechanism for the gauge potentials without damaging gauge invariance. With regards the space-time symmetry, the new formalism helps to fix the actual Lagrangian for general relativity in the teleparallelism version.