Suppression of proton decay in quantum gravity
Research output: Contribution to journal › Research article › Contributed › peer-review
Contributors
Abstract
The bound on the proton lifetime is one of a small handful of observations that constrains physics not far from the Planck scale. This calls for a calculation of the proton lifetime in quantum gravity. Here, we calculate how quantum fluctuations of the metric impact four-fermion interactions which mediate proton decay. We find that quantum gravity lowers the scaling dimension of the four-fermion interaction, suppressing proton decay and raising the proton lifetime significantly. As a special case, we analyze asymptotically safe quantum gravity, in which we discover that proton-decay-mediating four-fermion interactions are strictly zero.
Details
Original language | English |
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Article number | 138529 |
Journal | Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics |
Volume | 850 |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2024 |
Peer-reviewed | Yes |