Lifting a Realistic SO(10) Grand Unified Model to Five Dimensions

It has been shown recently that the problem of rapid proton decay induced by dimension five operators arising from the exchange of colored Higgsinos can be simply avoided in grand unified models where a fifth spatial dimension is compactified on an orbifold. Here we demonstrate that this idea can be used to solve the Higgsino-mediated proton decay problem in any realistic SO(10) model by lifting that model to five dimensions. A particular SO(10) model that has been proposed to explain the pattern of quark and lepton masses and mixings is used as an example. The idea is to break the SO(10) down to the Pati-Salam symmetry by the orbifold boundary conditions. The entire four-dimensional SO(10) model is placed on the physical SO(10) brane except for the gauge fields, the 45 and a single 10 of Higgs fields, which are placed in the five-dimensional bulk. The structure of the Higgs superpotential can be somewhat simplified in doing so, while the Yukawa superpotential and mass matrices derived from it remain essentially unaltered.Comment: 17 pages, version to be published in Phys. Rev. D with expanded discussion of the suppression of dim-5 proton decay operator

Resonant leptogenesis in a predictive SO(10) grand unified model

An SO(10) grand unified model considered previously by the authors featuring lopsided down quark and charged lepton mass matrices is successfully predictive and requires that the lightest two right-handed Majorana neutrinons be nearly degenerate in order to obtain the LMA solar neutrino solution. Here we use this model to test its predictions for baryogenesis through resonant-enhanced leptogenesis. With the conventional type I seesaw mechanism, the best predictions for baryogenesis appear to fall a factor of three short of the observed value. However, with a proposed type III seesaw mechanism leading to three pairs of massive pseudo-Dirac neutrinos, resonant leptogenesis is decoupled from the neutrino mass and mixing issues with successful baryogenesis easily obtained.Comment: 22 pages including 1 figure; published version with reference adde

Leptogenesis in the type III seesaw mechanism

It is shown that the type III seesaw mechanism proposed recently can have certain advantages over the conventional (or type I) seesaw mechanism for leptogenesis. In particular a resonant enhancement of leptogenesis via heavy quasi-Dirac right-handed neutrino pairs can occur without a special flavor form or "texture" of the mass matrices being assumed. Some of the requirements for neutrino mixing and leptogenesis are effectively decoupled.Comment: 12 pages including one figure, several references adde

Charged lepton contributions to the solar neutrino mixing and theta_13

A charged lepton contribution to the solar neutrino mixing induces a contribution to theta_13, barring cancellations/correlations, which is independent of the model building options in the neutrino sector. We illustrate two robust arguments for that contribution to be within the expected sensitivity of high intensity neutrino beam experiments. We find that the case in which the neutrino sector gives rise to a maximal solar angle (the natural situation if the hierarchy is inverse) leads to a theta_13 close to or exceeding the experimental bound depending on the precise values of theta_12, theta_23, an unknown phase and possible additional contributions. We finally discuss the possibility that the solar angle originates predominantly in the charged lepton sector. We find that the construction of a model of this sort is more complicated. We comment on a recent example of natural model of this type.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Horizontal symmetry in Higgs sector of GUT with U(1)_A symmetry

In a series of papers, we pointed out that an anomalous $U(1)_A$ gauge symmetry naturally solves various problems in grand unified theories (GUTs) and that a horizontal gauge symmetry, $SU(2)_H$ or $SU(3)_H$, not only realizes the unification of three generation quarks and leptons in fewer multiplets but also solves the supersymmetric flavor problem. In this paper, we examine the possibility that the Higgs sectors of the GUT symmetry and of the horizontal symmetry are unified, that is, there are some Higgs fields whose vacuum expectation values (VEVs) break both the GUT gauge symmetry and the horizontal symmetry at the same time. Although the scale of the VEVs become too large to suppress the flavor changing neutral current processes sufficiently, the unification is possible. In addition, for the $SU(3)_H$ models, the $SU(3)_H$ gauge anomaly is cancelled in the unified models without introducing additional fields in contrast with the previous models in which the Higgs sectors are not unified.Comment: 35 page

Neutrinos in 5D SO(10) Unification

We study neutrino physics in a 5D supersymmetric SO(10) GUT. We analyze several different choices for realizing the See-Saw mechanism. We find that the "natural" scale for the Majorana mass of right-handed neutrinos depends critically on whether the right-handed neutrinos are located in the bulk or localized on a brane. In the former case, the effective Majorana mass is "naturally" of order the compactification scale, about 10^{14} GeV. Note, this is the value necessary for obtaining a light tau neutrino mass approximately 10^{-2} eV which, within the context of hierarchical neutrino masses, is the right order of magnitude to explain atmospheric neutrino oscillations. On the other-hand when the right-handed neutrino is localized on the brane, the effective Majorana mass is typically larger than the compactification scale. Nevertheless with small parameters of order 1/10 - 1/30, an effective Majorana mass of order 10^{14} GeV can be accommodated. We also discuss the constraints on model building resulting from the different scenarios for locating the right-handed neutrinos.Comment: 24 page

Natural relations among physical observables in the neutrino mass matrix

We find all possible relations among physical observables arising from neutrino mass matrices that describe in a natural way the currently observed pattern (tan_23 and tan_12 large, dm^2_Sun/dm^2_Atm and tan_13 small) in terms of a minimum number of parameters. Natural here means due only to the relative smallness (vanishing) of some parameters in the relevant lagrangian, without special relations or accidental cancellations among them.Comment: 14 pages, 1 eps figur

Constraints on the rare tau decays from mu --> e gamma in the supersymmetric see-saw model

It is now a firmly established fact that all family lepton numbers are violated in Nature. In this paper we discuss the implications of this observation for future searches for rare tau decays in the supersymmetric see-saw model. Using the two loop renormalization group evolution of the soft terms and the Yukawa couplings we show that there exists a lower bound on the rate of the rare process mu --> e gamma of the form BR(mu --> e gamma) > C BR(tau --> mu gamma) BR(tau --> e gamma), where C is a constant that depends on supersymmetric parameters. Our only assumption is the absence of cancellations among the high-energy see-saw parameters. We also discuss the implications of this bound for future searches for rare tau decays. In particular, for large regions of the mSUGRA parameter space, we show that present B-factories could discover either tau --> mu gamma or tau --> e gamma, but not both.Comment: 39 pages, 7 figures. Typos corrected, references adde

Lepton Flavour Violation in a Class of Lopsided SO(10) Models

A class of predictive SO(10) grand unified theories with highly asymmetric mass matrices, known as lopsided textures, has been developed to accommodate the observed mixing in the neutrino sector. The model class effectively determines the rate for charged lepton flavour violation, and in particular the branching ratio for $\mu -> e \gamma$, assuming that the supersymmetric GUT breaks directly to the constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM). We find that in light of the combined constraints on the CMSSM parameters from direct searches and from the WMAP satellite observations, the resulting predicted rate for $\mu -> e \gamma$ in this model class can be within the current experimental bounds for low $\tan \beta$, but that the next generation of $\mu -> e \gamma$ experiments would effectively rule out this model class if LFV is not detected.Comment: 23 page

SUSY GUTs under Siege : Proton Decay

SO(10) supersymmetric grand unified theories [SUSY GUTs] provide a beautiful framework for physics beyond the standard model. Experimental measurements of the three gauge couplings are consistent with unification at a scale $M_G \sim 3 \times 10^{16}$ GeV. In addition predictive models for fermion masses and mixing angles have been found which fit the low energy data, including the recent data for neutrino oscillations. SO(10) boundary conditions can be tested via the spectrum of superparticles. The simplest models also predict neutron and proton decay rates. In this paper we discuss nucleon decay rates and obtain reasonable upper bounds. A clear picture of the allowed SUSY spectra as constrained by nucleon decay is presented.Comment: 13 page