Minimal supersymmetric hybrid inflation, flipped SU(5) and proton decay

• Published in: Physics letters. B Vol. 688; no. 1; pp. 75 - 81
• Main Authors: Rehman, Mansoor Ur, Shafi, Qaisar, Wickman, Joshua R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 26.04.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Bosons; Cosmology; Decay; Elementary particles; Exact sciences and technology; Inflation; Nuclear physics; Operators; Physics; Proton decay; Scalars; Spectra; Supersymmetry; The physics of elementary particles and fields; Proton decay; Cosmology; Inflation; Operator; Kähler manifold; Radiative corrections; Inflaton; Supergravity; Symmetry breaking; Lifetime; SU theory; Superpotential; Negative mass; Spectral index; Bosons
• ISSN: 0370-2693; 1873-2445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2010.03.072

Minimal supersymmetric hybrid inflation utilizes a canonical Kähler potential and a renormalizable superpotential which is uniquely determined by imposing a U(1) R-symmetry. In computing the scalar spectral index ns we take into account modifications of the tree level potential caused by radiative and supergravity corrections, as well as contributions from the soft supersymmetry breaking terms with a negative soft mass-squared term allowed for the inflaton. All of these contributions play a role in realizing ns values in the range 0.96–0.97 preferred by WMAP. The U(1) R-symmetry plays an important role in flipped SU(5) by eliminating the troublesome dimension five proton decay. The proton decays into e+π0 via dimension six operators arising from the exchange of superheavy gauge bosons with a lifetime of order 1034–1036 years.