Proton decay from quark and lepton compositeness

Within a chiral SU(15) gauge theory in which the Standard Model fermions are bound states of massless preons, we show that proton-decay operators are likely induced at the compositeness scale, Lambda(pre). Our estimate of the limit imposed by searches for proton decays is Lambda pre > 10(4) TeV1/2 C-1/4 (8) m(1/2) Q, where C-8 is a rescaled coefficient of an 8-prebaryon operator induced by SU(15) dynamics, and mQ is the mass of a composite vectorlike quark. The latter has a lower limit related to the mass of a composite vectorlike lepton, which in turn is required by LHC searches to be above 1TeV. For C-8 in the 10(-5) - 1 range, the lower limit on Lambda(pre) varies between 3 x 10(3) TeV and 5 x 10(4) TeV. We point out that exotic proton decay modes, into a pi (+) and a heavy right-handed neutrino, could be observed using the Super-Kamiokande or DUNE detectors.

Automated summary

Research shows that proton-decay operators may be induced at higher compositeness scale within a chiral SU(15) gauge theory, with certain limitations. This can be confirmed by searching for limits on proton decays, and the possibility of observing exotic proton decay modes via the Super-Kamiokande or DUNE detectors was also mentioned.