Gravitational waves and proton decay: complementary windows into GUTs. (arXiv:2005.13549v1 [hep-ph])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+King_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Stephen F. King</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+Pascoli_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">Silvia Pascoli</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+Turner_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Jessica Turner</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+Zhou_Y/0/1/0/all/0/1">Ye-Ling Zhou</a>
Proton decay is a smoking gun signature of Grand Unified Theories (GUTs).
Searches by Super-Kamiokande have resulted in stringent limits on the GUT
symmetry breaking scale. The large-scale multipurpose neutrino experiments
DUNE, Hyper-Kamiokande and JUNO will either discover proton decay or further
push the symmetry breaking scale above $10^{16}$ GeV. Another possible
observational consequence of GUTs is the formation of a cosmic string network
produced during the breaking of the GUT to the Standard Model gauge group. The
evolution of such a string network in the expanding Universe produces a
stochastic background of gravitational waves which will be tested by a number
of gravitational wave detectors over a wide frequency range. We demonstrate the
non-trivial complementary between the observation of proton decay and
gravitational waves produced from cosmic strings in determining $SO(10)$ GUT
breaking chains. We show that such observations could exclude $SO(10)$ breaking
via flipped $SU(5)times U(1)$ or standard $SU(5)$, while breaking via a
Pati-Salam intermediate symmetry, or standard $SU(5)times U(1)$, may be
favoured if a large separation of energy scales associated with proton decay
and cosmic strings is indicated.
Proton decay is a smoking gun signature of Grand Unified Theories (GUTs).
Searches by Super-Kamiokande have resulted in stringent limits on the GUT
symmetry breaking scale. The large-scale multipurpose neutrino experiments
DUNE, Hyper-Kamiokande and JUNO will either discover proton decay or further
push the symmetry breaking scale above $10^{16}$ GeV. Another possible
observational consequence of GUTs is the formation of a cosmic string network
produced during the breaking of the GUT to the Standard Model gauge group. The
evolution of such a string network in the expanding Universe produces a
stochastic background of gravitational waves which will be tested by a number
of gravitational wave detectors over a wide frequency range. We demonstrate the
non-trivial complementary between the observation of proton decay and
gravitational waves produced from cosmic strings in determining $SO(10)$ GUT
breaking chains. We show that such observations could exclude $SO(10)$ breaking
via flipped $SU(5)times U(1)$ or standard $SU(5)$, while breaking via a
Pati-Salam intermediate symmetry, or standard $SU(5)times U(1)$, may be
favoured if a large separation of energy scales associated with proton decay
and cosmic strings is indicated.
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