SO(10): A case for hadron colliders

Abstract

We study the mass scales in the SO(10) grand unified theory based on the following minimal Higgs representation content: adjoint 45H, spinor 16H and complex vector 10H, with higher dimensional operators on top of renormalizable interactions. Assuming no judicial cancellations in proton decay amplitudes, the consistency of the theory requires scalar weak triplet, scalar doublet leptoquark and scalar gluon octet to lie roughly below 10TeV energy and potentially accessible even at the LHC. Under the same assumption, these signatures are intimately connected with an expectation of proton lifetime below 1035yr, to be probed in the new generation of proton decay experiments.