Gravitational Corrections to Fermion Masses in Grand Unified Theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates how quantum gravitational effects influence fermion mass unification in Grand Unified Theories, revealing that Planck scale running significantly impacts threshold corrections and complicates low-energy extrapolations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that quantum gravitational threshold effects are more significant than previously thought, affecting fermion mass unification in GUTs.

Findings

Quantum gravitational effects alter fermion mass thresholds.

Planck mass running significantly impacts unification predictions.

Extrapolations from low-energy data become more challenging.

Abstract

We reconsider quantum gravitational threshold effects to the unification of fermion masses in Grand Unified Theories. We show that the running of the Planck mass can have a sizable effect on these thresholds which are thus much more important than naively expected. These corrections make any extrapolation from low energy measurements challenging.