One-loop proton decay from Peccei-Quinn symmetry

AbstraktAbstract

We promote the accidental B + L symmetry of the Standard Model to a Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry while realizing spontaneous proton decay radiatively. The PQ anomaly sector consists of vector-like quarks (VLQs), providing a Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov-type axion solution to the strong CP problem. After spontaneous PQ breaking, a residual Z2 symmetry remains, which forbids tree-level proton decay. The VLQs required to generate the QCD anomaly, together with scalar mediators, odd under the residual Z2, induce one-loop proton decay through the effective operator uRuRdReR. We study its ultraviolet completions, featuring distinct vector-like fermion and scalar representations, and show that the resulting models lead to distinct predictions for the axion-to-photon coupling, testable in helioscope and haloscope experiments. We investigate proton and neutron decay pheneomenology focusing on the channel p-e+r0. We also discuss axion dark matter in pre-and post-inflationary cosmology.

We promote the accidental B + L symmetry of the Standard Model to a Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry while realizing spontaneous proton decay radiatively. The PQ anomaly sector consists of vector-like quarks (VLQs), providing a Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov-type axion solution to the strong CP problem. After spontaneous PQ breaking, a residual Z2 symmetry remains, which forbids tree-level proton decay. The VLQs required to generate the QCD anomaly, together with scalar mediators, odd under the residual Z2, induce one-loop proton decay through the effective operator uRuRdReR. We study its ultraviolet completions, featuring distinct vector-like fermion and scalar representations, and show that the resulting models lead to distinct predictions for the axion-to-photon coupling, testable in helioscope and haloscope experiments. We investigate proton and neutron decay pheneomenology focusing on the channel p-e+r0. We also discuss axion dark matter in pre-and post-inflationary cosmology.