Futility of high-precision SO(10) calculations

Journal Article · Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1989 · Physical Review (Section) D: Particles and Fields; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.40.3765· OSTI ID:7017193

Dixit, V V ^[1]; Sher, M ^[2]

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1. High Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (USA) Department of Science and Mathematics, Parks College of St. Louis University, Cahokia, Illinois 62206 (USA)
2. Physics Department, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23185 (USA)

In grand unified models, there are a large number of scalar bosons with masses of the order of the unification scale. Since the masses could be an order of magnitude or so above or below the vector-boson masses, they will affect the beta functions and thus low-energy predictions; the lack of knowledge of the masses translates into an uncertainty in these predictions. Although the effect is very small for a single scalar field, SO(10) models have hundreds of such fields, leading to very large uncertainties. We analyze this effect in SO(10) models with intermediate scales, and show that all such models have an {ital additional} uncertainty which can be as large as 4 orders of magnitude in the proton lifetime and as large as a factor of 0.02 in sin{sup 2}{theta}{sub w}. In models with 210-dimensional representations, the weak mixing angle is uncertain by as much as 0.06. As a result, we argue that precise calculations in SO(10) models with intermediate scales may not be possible.

• DOE Contract Number: W-31-109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 7017193
• Journal Information: Physical Review (Section) D: Particles and Fields; (USA), Vol. 40:11; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
GRAND UNIFIED THEORY
CALCULATION METHODS
SO-10 GROUPS
SCALAR FIELDS
BOSONS
LIFETIME
MASS
PROTONS
SU-2 GROUPS
SU-3 GROUPS
SYMMETRY BREAKING
U-1 GROUPS
BARYONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
HADRONS
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUCLEONS
PARTICLE MODELS
SO GROUPS
SU GROUPS
SYMMETRY GROUPS
U GROUPS
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
UNIFIED-FIELD THEORIES
645300* - High Energy Physics- Particle Invariance Principles & Symmetries
645400 - High Energy Physics- Field Theory