Confronting SO(10) GUTs with proton decay and gravitational waves

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics Vol. 2021; no. 10; pp. 225 - 38
• Main Authors: King, Stephen F., Pascoli, Silvia, Turner, Jessica, Zhou, Ye-Ling
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 28.10.2021; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Chains; Classical and Quantum Gravitation; Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM; Decay; Elementary Particles; Gauge Symmetry; Grand unified theory; Gravitational waves; GUT; High energy physics; Neutrino Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Protons; Quantum Field Theories; Quantum Field Theory; Quantum Physics; Regular Article - Theoretical Physics; Relativity Theory; String Theory; Strings; Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM; Gauge Symmetry; Neutrino Physics; GUT
• ISSN: 1029-8479; 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP10(2021)225

A bstract Grand Unified Theories (GUT) predict proton decay as well as the formation of cosmic strings which can generate gravitational waves. We determine which non-supersymmetric SO(10) breaking chains provide gauge unification in addition to a gravitational signal from cosmic strings. We calculate the GUT and intermediate scales for these SO(10) breaking chains by solving the renormalisation group equations at the two-loop level. This analysis predicts the GUT scale, hence the proton lifetime, in addition to the scale of cosmic string generation and thus the associated gravitational wave signal. We determine which SO(10) breaking chains survive in the event of the null results of the next generation of gravitational waves and proton decay searches and determine the correlations between proton decay and gravitational waves scales if these observables are measured.