Proton decay testing low energy SUSY

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that precise gauge coupling unification in SUSY models links collider and proton decay experiments, allowing current proton decay limits to set upper bounds on SUSY particle masses, with future experiments promising tighter constraints.

Contribution

It establishes a direct connection between gauge coupling unification in SUSY and bounds on SUSY particle masses from proton decay experiments, providing new testable predictions.

Findings

Current proton decay limits exclude gluinos heavier than ~120 TeV and winos heavier than ~40 TeV.

Next-generation experiments could lower these bounds to ~10 TeV for gluinos and ~3 TeV for winos.

The bounds depend on the assumed mass ratio M3/M2 ~ 3.

Abstract

We show that gauge coupling unification in SUSY models can make a non-trivial interconnection between collider and proton decay experiments. Under the assumption of precise gauge coupling unification in the MSSM, the low energy SUSY spectrum and the unification scale are intertwined, and the lower bound on the proton lifetime can be translated into upper bounds on SUSY masses. We found that the current limit on $\tau(p \to \pi^0 e^+)$ already excludes gluinos and winos heavier than $\sim 120$ and 40 TeV, respectively, if their mass ratio is $M_3/M_2 \sim 3$. Next generation nucleon decay experiments are expected to bring these upper bounds down to $\sim 10$ and 3 TeV.