We study the proton lifetime in the $SO(10)$ Grand Unified Theory (GUT), which has the left-right (LR) symmetric gauge theory below the GUT scale. In particular, we focus on the minimal model without the bi-doublet Higgs field in the LR symmetric model, which predicts the LR-breaking scale at around $10^{10\text{--}12}$ GeV. The Wilson coefficients of the proton decay operators turn out to be considerably larger than those in the minimal $SU(5)$ GUT model especially when the Standard Model Yukawa interactions are generated by integrating out extra vector-like multiplets. As a result, we find that the proton lifetime can be within the reach of the Hyper-Kamiokande experiment even when the GUT gauge boson mass is in the $10^{16\text{--}17}$ GeV range. We also show that the mass of the extra vector-like multiplets can be generated by the Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking in a consistent way with the axion dark matter scenario.
We discuss renormalization group equations for gauge coupling constants in gauge-Higgs grand unification on five-dimensional Randall-Sundrum warped space. We show that all the four-dimensional Standard Model gauge coupling constants are asymptotically free and are effectively unified in $SO(11)$ gauge-Higgs grand unified theories on 5D Randall-Sundrum warped space.
We review several problems of conventional Grand Unification and some new approaches. In particular, we discuss strongly coupled Grand Unified Theories. Standard Model may emerge as a low energy effective theory of composite particles in these models. We construct a realistic model of this kind.
Recent progress in some selected areas of grand unification and physics beyond the standard model is reviewed. Topics include gauge coupling unification, SU(5), SO(10), symmetry breaking mechanisms, finite field theory: SU(3)^3, leptonic color: SU(3)^4, chiral color and quark-lepton nonuniversality: SU(3)^6.
The grand unification scale $M_{GUT}\sim 10^{16}$ GeV may arise from dynamical effects. With the advances in understanding of supersymmetric dynamics, we can break the grand unified group by introducing a strong gauge group which generates the grand unification scale. We also show how this mechanism can be combined with solutions to the doublet-triplet splitting problem. The same method can also be used for other symmetry breakings at intermediate scales as well.
The effective Higgs theories at the TeV scale in supersymmetric $SU(5)$ grand unification models are systematically derived. Restricted to extensions on $\mathbf{5}_{H}$ containing the Higgs sector we show that only two types of real (vector-like) models and one type of chiral model are found to be consistent with perturbative grand unification. While the chiral model has been excluded by the LHC data, the fate of perturbative unification will be uniquely determined by the two classes of vector-like models.
We show that an intermediate gauge symmetry breaking scale can be a significant source of electric dipole moments for the electron and neutron in supersymmetric grand unified theories. New phases, similar to that of the CKM matrix, appear which do not arise from the supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking operators. To illustrate, we choose some grand unified SUSY models having an intermediate gauge symmetry breaking scale with some attractive features. We also show how well the $b-τ$ unification hypothesis works in this class of models.
We discuss the production of lepton flavor violation and EDMs and the viability of the $b-τ$ unification hypothesis in SUSY grand unification with an intermediate gauge symmetry breaking scale.
The grand unification of flavor(GUF) in extra dimensions is discussed. After reviewing the old GUF, I present a GUF model SU(7) in 5D with the recently popular field theoretic orbifold compactification.
In the recent successful applications of the non-Abelian discrete symmetry A_4 to the tribimaximal mixing of neutrinos, lepton doublets and singlets do not transform in the same way. It appears thus to be unsuitable as a family symmetry in grand unification. A simple resolution of this dilemma is proposed.
We consider constraints on gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking models imposed by the requirement of grand unification. In particular, we demonstrate several ways to reduce the number of parameters coming from the dynamical supersymmetry breaking sector. One of approaches exploits nonperturbative unification of gauge couplings in multi-messenger models.
We consider first heavy particles with masses $M\sim M_{GUT}$ which arise in the Universe during phase transitions at the Grand Unification scale. Using statistical mechanics approach we show that they behave like ideal quantum degenerate Bose gas which has the temperature of the Hawking thermal radiation due to presence of the de Sitter event horizon. The equation of state for both scalar and gauge bosons is presented including the coupling constant at the Grand Unification scale.
The current status of gauge unification is surveyed both in the standard model and its minimal supersymmetric extension. Implications for proton decay, Yukawa unification, and the Higgs mass are described.
We study the evolution of fermion mass matrices considering the hypothesis of approximate flavor symmetries (AFS) in the Standard Model and a two-Higgs-doublet model. We find that the hierarchical structure is not significantly altered by the running, hence the assumption of AFS is entirely compatible with a grand unification scenario.
We apply the perturbative grand unification due to renormalization to distinguish TeV-scale relics of supersymmetric $\rm{SO}(10)$ scenarios. With rational theoretical constraints taken into account, we find that for the breaking pattern of either $\rm{SU}(5)$ or Pati-Salam only extra matter $\mathbf{16}$ supermultiplet of $SO(10)$ can appear at TeV scale, apart from MSSM spectrum.
Extrapolating the coupling strengths to very high energies, one finds that they do not converge to a single coupling constant, as expected in the simplest gauge theory of Grand Unification, the SU(5) theory. We find that the coupling constants do converge, provided that two new intermediate energy scales are introduced, the energies where the group SU(4), containing the color group, and the right-isospin gauge group are spontaneously broken down.
We review the prototype model of a grand unified theory on the orbifold $S^1/Z_2$ and discuss topics related to the choice of boundary conditions; the dynamical rearrangement of gauge symmetry and the equivalence classes of BCs. We explore a family unification scenario by orbifolding.
The hypercharges of the fermions are not uniquely determined in SO(10) grand unification, but rather depend upon which linear combination of the two U(1) subgroups of SO(10) > SU(3) X SU(2) X U(1) X U(1) remains unbroken. We show that, in general, a given hypercharge assignment can be obtained only with very high-dimensional Higgs representations. The observation that the standard model is obtained with low-dimensional Higgs representations can therefore be regarded as further evidence for SO(10) grand unification. This evidence is independent of the fact that SO(10) > SU(5).
We study proton decay in finite supersymmetric SU(5) grand unified theories. We find that the finite supersymmetric SU(5) models are ruled out from this consideration.
We show that the couplings of axions to gauge bosons are highly restricted in Grand Unified Theories where the standard model is embedded in a simple 4D gauge group. The topological nature of these couplings allows them to be matched from the UV to the IR, and the ratio of the anomaly with photons and gluons for any axion is fixed by unification. This implies that there is a single axion, the QCD axion, with an anomalous coupling to photons. Other light axion-like particles can couple to photons by mixing through the QCD axion portal and lie to the right of the QCD line in the mass-coupling pl…
Analysis of the model of Babu and Mohapatra for the mass matrices in SO(10), with survey of the different types of neutrino spectra possible in that model
In spite of the enormous success of the Standard Model (SM), we have strong reasons to expect the presence of new physics beyond the SM at higher energies. The idea of the Grand Unification of all the known interactions in nature is perhaps the main reason behind these expectations. Low-energy Supersymmetry is closely linked with grand unification as a solution of the hierarchy problem associated with the ratio M_GUT / M_Z. In these lectures we will provide a general overview of Grand Unification and Supersymmetry with special emphasis on their phenomenological consequences at low energies. We…
SU(5) $\otimes$ SU(5) provides a minimal grand unification scheme for fermions and gauge forces if there are vector-like quarks and leptons in nature. We explore the gauge coupling unification in a non-supersymmetric model of this type, and study its implications for proton decay. The properties of vector-like quarks and intermediate scales that emerge from coupling unification play a central role in suppressing proton decay. We find that in this model, the familiar decay mode $p \to e^+ π^0$ may have a partial lifetime within the reach of currently planned experiments.
Grand Unified Theories based on the group SO(10) generically provide interesting and testable relations between the charged fermions and neutrino sector masses and mixings. In the light of the recent neutrino data, we reexamine these relations both in supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric models, and give a brief review of their present status.
Talk given at Frontiers in Particle Physics Conference, Cargese. In this paper, I provide some motivation for supersymmetric grand unified theories, briefly explain an extension of the standard model based on them and present a calculation performed using certain properties of some SUSY GUTs to constrain the available parameter space.
We discuss the anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry as a mechanism of generating the grand-unification scale. We conclude that unification to a simple group cannot be realized unless some parameters are ``tuned'', and that models with product gauge groups are preferred. We consider the ``R-invariant natural unification'' model with gauge groups SU(5)_{GUT} \times U(3)_H. In this model the doublet-triplet splitting problem is solved and the unwanted GUT relation m_s = m_μis avoided maintaining m_b = m_τ. Moreover, R-invariance suppresses the dangerous proton decays induced by dimension four and five o…
Supersymmetric grand unification based on $SO(10)$ is one of the most attractive paradigms in physics beyond the Standard Model. Inspired by the recent NANOGrav signal, we discuss the implications of detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background emitted by a network of cosmic strings for the $SO(10)$ grand unification. Starting from a minimal model with multiple steps of symmetry breaking, we show that it generally prefers a high intermediate scale above $10^{14}\, \mathrm{GeV}$ that is favored by observable primordial gravitational waves. The observed spectrum can potentially narrow th…
The present work considers the phase transition between the confinement and "Coulomb" phases in U(1), SU(2) and SU(3)-sectors of Anti-grand unified theory described by regularized Wilson loop action. It was shown the independence of the critical coupling constants of the regularization method ("universality").
We systematically analyze the correlations between the various leptonic and hadronic flavor violating processes arising in SUSY Grand Unified Theories. Using the GUT-symmetric relations between the soft SUSY breaking parameters, we assess the impact of hadronic and leptonic flavor observables on the SUSY sources of flavor violation.
In accordance with known phenomenological facts on leptons and quarks in the Standard Model as well as on the scale of neutrino masses and introducing the supersymmetry, we logically substantiate the unique composition of fundamental representation for the fermionic multiplet of gauge group $E_8$.
A survey is given of supersymmetry and supergravity and their phenomenology. Some of the topics discussed are the basic ideas of global supersymmetry, the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and its phenomenology, the basic ideas of local supersymmetry (supergravity), grand unification, supersymmetry breaking in supergravity grand unified models, radiative breaking of $SU(2) \times U(1)$, proton decay, cosmological constraints, and predictions of supergravity grand unified models. While the number of detailed derivations are necessarily limited, a sufficient number of results are give…
A grand unified model based on SU(5) and supersymmetry is presented. Pairs of superfields belonging to 15 and 15* representations are newly introduced, while gauge coupling unification is satisfied. Improper mass relations in the minimal model between charged leptons and d-type quarks are corrected. Neutrinos have non-vanishing masses, with large angles for generation mixings of the leptons being compatible with the small angles of the quarks. Constraints from proton decay are relaxed. A new source for lepton number generation in the early universe is provided.
In a recent paper on SU(16) grand unification, because of the presence of intermediate-energy gauge groups containing products of U(1) factors which are not orthogonal among themselves, the renormalization-group treatment has a few small errors. I correct it. I emphasize that one should not switch gauge couplings at the various thresholds. It is easier, and it avoids errors, to use throughout the gauge couplings of the standard model, and compute at each threshold, in the usual way, the extra contributions to the beta functions from the extra non-decoupled fields. I also point out that the SU(…
Contrary to commonly held belief, we show that one can obtain a low value for $M_R$, the $SU(2)_R$ breaking scale, in grand unification theories based on $SO(10)$. This possibility emerges in the supersymmetric version of $SO(10)$ with a judicious choice of Higgs content. The unification scale is found to be consistent with the constraint from proton decay. This result is first explicitly demonstrated using the one loop renormalization group equations, and then a full two loop analysis is carried out.
Astrophysical indications that the fine structure constant is time dependent are discussed in the framework of grand unification models. A variation of the electromagnetic coupling constant could either be generated by a corresponding time variation of the unified coupling constant or by a time variation of the unification scale, or by both. The case in which the time variation of the electromagnetic coupling constant is caused by a time variation of the unification scale is of special interest. It is supported in addition by recent hints towards a time change of the proton-electron mass ratio…
Supersymmetry (SUSY) has many well known attractions, especially in the context of Grand Unified Theories (GUTs). SUSY stabilizes scalar mass corrections (the hierarchy problem), greatly reduces the number of free parameters, facilitates gauge coupling unification, and provides a plausible candidate for cosmological dark matter. In this conference report we survey some recent examples of progress in SUSY-GUT applications.
Minimal Flavor Violation is an attractive approach to suppress unacceptably large flavor changing neutral currents from beyond the standard model physics at the TeV scale. It can be used in theories with low energy supersymmetry, multi Higgs doublet theories and other extensions of the minimal standard model. We show how minimal flavor violation can be implemented in Grand Unified theories.
We explicitly test the asymptotic grand unification of a minimal 5-dimensional model with SO(10) gauge theory compactified on an $S^{1}/Z_{2}\times Z^{\prime}_{2}$ orbifold. We consider all matter fields as propagating in the bulk and show that the gauge couplings asymptotically run to a fixed point in the UV. However, the Yukawa couplings will typically hit a Landau pole right above the compactification scale in this class of SO(10) models.
The stability of dark matter is naturally explained if there is an additional U(1) symmetry which is spontaneously broken to a discrete symmetry at a high-energy scale. Such a framework is realized in the context of the SO(10) grand unification. In this work, we discuss dark matter models in the non-supersymmetric SO(10) grand unified models in which the stability of dark matter is assured by this mechanism. We find that the requirement of gauge coupling unification with a sufficiently high unification scale to evade the proton decay constraints plays an important role in selecting viable cand…
We consider a minimal SO(10) unified model with horizontal Peccei-Quinn symmetry. The hierarchical structure of quark-lepton mass matrices is naturally implemented by the remnants of certain irrelevant terms. Georgi-Jarlskog relations are also realized due to the horizontal symmetry.
We discuss the proton lifetime in pure gravity mediation models with non-universal Higgs soft masses. Pure gravity mediation offers a simple framework for studying SU(5) grand unified theories with a split supersymmetry like spectra. We find that for much of the parameter space gauge coupling unification is quite good leading to rather long lifetimes for the proton. However, for $m_{3/2}\sim 60$ TeV and $\tanβ\sim 4$, for which gauge coupling unification is also good, the proton lifetime is short enough that it could be in reach of future experiments.
A constraint on masses of superheavy gauge and Higgs multiplets at the grand unification (GUT) scale is obtained from the gauge coupling unification in the case of high-scale supersymmetry. We found that all of the particles may lie around a scale of 10^16 GeV so that the threshold corrections to the gauge coupling constants at the GUT scale are smaller than those in the case of the low-energy supersymmetry. In addition, the GUT scale tends to be slightly lower when the gauginos are heavier and, thus, the proton decay rate via the X-boson exchange process is expected to be enhanced.
Limits on gravitational smearing from the dominant dimension 5 operator (with strength characterised by $cM/2M_{Planck}$) are obtained using the LEP data in supersymmetric SU(5) grand unification. Effects of c on the quasi infrared fixed point solutio ns of $m_b/m_τ$ unification are also analysed. It is found that $c>0$ softens and $c<0$ stiffens the fixed point constraint. The effect of c on the upper bound of the Higgs triplet mass is analysed and the existence of a scaling induced by c is discussed. Tests for the existence of gravitational smearing are discussed.
If grand unification is real, searches for baryon-number violation should be included on the list of observables that may reveal information regarding the origin of neutrino masses. Making use of an effective-operator approach and assuming that nature is SU(5) invariant at very short distances, we estimate the consequences of different scenarios that lead to light Majorana neutrinos for low-energy phenomena that violate baryon number minus lepton number (B-L) by two (or more) units, including neutron-antineutron oscillations and B-L violating nucleon decays. We find that, among all possible ef…
Barbieri and Hall have argued that threshold effects at the scale of grand-unification wipe out predictions on the SUSY scale, M_S. Using triviality arguments we give upper bounds on ultraheavy particles, while proton stability gives lower bounds on the mass of the higgs color-triplet. We find no useful lower bound on the $Σ$ supermultiplet, but if the strong coupling constant is as large as recent experiments suggest, unification in the minimal SUSY SU(5) model requires that the $Sigma$ masses be $\sim 10^{-7}M_V$ and that the color octet and weak triplet be split in mass by a factor of $\sim…
We continue to investigate the minimal SO(10)xU(1)_H model which we proposed recently. Renormalization group analysis of the model results in natural predictions of quark-lepton masses and Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix along with neutrino mixings adequate for solar neutrino oscillation.
In combination with supersymmetry, flavor symmetry may relate quarks with leptons, even in the absence of a grand-unification group. We propose an SU(3)xSU(2)xU(1) model where both supersymmetry and the assumed A4 flavor symmetries are softly broken, reproducing well the observed fermion mass hierarchies and predicting: (i) a relation between down-type quarks and charged lepton masses, and (ii) a correlation between the Cabibbo angle in the quark sector, and the reactor angle characterizing CP violation in neutrino oscillations.
We argue that sufficiently complex grand unified theories involving extra strong intractions that confine at very short distances, may lead to a heavy axion solution of the CP problem of QCD. This axion may have a mass within accessible energy range, and its low energy interactions emerge through mixing with axial Higgs boson(s). Another signature of this scenario is softly broken Peccei-Quinn symmetry in the electroweak Higgs sector. We present a toy GUT exhibiting these features.
We report on a preferred region of supersymmetric parameter space by t, b, tau Yukawa unification. We find a narrow region survives for mu > 0 (suggested by b --> s gamma and the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon) with A_0 \sim - 2 m_{16}, m_{16} > 1200 GeV, mu, M_{1/2} << m_{16} and tan β\sim 50 \pm 2. Demanding Yukawa unification thus makes definite predictions for Higgs and sparticle masses.
We exploit the recently developed software package LieART to show that SU(N) grand unified theories with chiral fermions in mixed tensor irreducible representations can lead to standard model chiral fermions without additional light exotic chiral fermions, i.e., only standard model fermions are light in these models. Results are tabulated which may be of use to model builders in the future. An SU(6) toy model is given and model searches are discussed.
We study grand unified theories based on an SU(5)xSU(5) gauge group in which the GUT scale, M_{GUT}, is the VEV of an exact or approximate modulus, and in which fast proton decay is avoided through a combination of a large triplet mass and small triplet couplings. These features are achieved by discrete symmetries. In many of our models, M_{GUT} is generated naturally by the balance of higher dimension terms that lift the GUT modulus potential, and soft supersymmetry breaking masses. The theories often lead to interesting patterns of quark and lepton masses. We also discuss some distinctions b…
The simplest minimal left-right symmetric extension of the standard model is studied in the high energy limit, and some consequences of the grand unification hypothesis are explored assuming that the parity breaking scale is the only relevant energy between the electro-weak scale and the unification point. While the model is shown to be compatible with the observed neutrino phenomenology, the parity breaking scale and the heavy boson masses are predicted to be above 10^7 TeV, quite far from the reach of nowadays experiments. Below that scale only an almost sterile right handed neutrino is allo…
4D Higgs field is identified with the extra-dimensional component of gauge potentials in the gauge-Higgs unification scenario. $SO(5) \times U(1)$ gauge-Higgs EW unification in the Randall-Sundrum warped space is successful at low energies. The Higgs field appears as an Aharonov-Bohm phase $θ_H$ in the fifth dimension. Its mass is generated at the quantum level and is finite. The model yields almost the same phenomenology as the standard model for $θ_H < 0.1$, and predicts $Z'$ bosons around 6 - 10 TeV with very broad widths. The scenario is genelarized to $SO(11)$ gauge-Higgs grand unificatio…
It is shown how to use as horizontal symmetry the dicyclic group $Q_6 \subset SU(2)$ in a supersymmetric unification $SU(5)\otimes SU(5)\otimes SU(2)$ where one $SU(5)$ acts on the first and second families, in a horizontal doublet, and the other acts on the third. This can lead to acceptable quark masses and mixings, with an economic choice of matter supermultiplets, and charged lepton masses can be accommodated.
I review the profound connection between the see-saw mechanism for neutrino masses and grand unification. This connection points naturally towards SO(10) grand unified theory. The emphasis here is on the supersymmetric theory, but I also discuss salient features of its split supersymmetry version and ordinary non-supersymmetric SO(10). Particular attention is paid to the crucial issue of the minimal such theory, i.e. the question of the Higgs sector needed to break SO(10) down to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model or the Standard Model. Some essential features of the see-saw mechanism a…
We investigate a 5D SU(6) grand gauge-Higgs unification model compactified on an orbifold S^1/Z_2. Ordinary quarks and leptons, together with right-handed neutrinos, are just accommodated into a minimal set of representations of the gauge group, without introducing any exotic states. The proton decay turns out to be forbidden at least at the tree level. We also find a correct electroweak symmetry breaking SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y \to U(1)_{em} is easily realized by introducing suitable number of adjoint fermions.
