Light color octet scalars in the minimal SO(10) grand unification

Abstract

We analyze the relation between the present (and foreseen) bounds on matter stability and the presence of TeV-scale color octet scalar states in nonsupersymmetric SO(10) grand unification with one adjoint Higgs representation triggering the symmetry breaking. This scenario, discarded long ago due to tree-level tachyonic instabilities appearing in all phenomenologically viable breaking patterns, has been recently revived at the quantum level. By including the relevant two-loop corrections we find a tight correlation between the octet mass and the unification scale which either requires a light color octet scalar within the reach of the LHC or, alternatively, a proton lifetime accessible to the forthcoming megaton-scale facilities.