Theoretical Uncertainties in Proton Lifetime Estimates

Abstract

We recapitulate the primary sources of theoretical uncertainties in proton lifetime estimates in renormalizable, four-dimensional and non-supersymmetric grand unifications that represent the most conservative framework in which this question may be addressed at the perturbative level. We point out that many of these uncertainties are so severe that there are only very few scenarios in which an NLO approach, as crucial as it is for a real testability of any specific model, is actually sensible. Among these, the most promising seems to be the minimal renormalizable SO(10) GUT whose high-energy gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken by the adjoint and the five-index antisymmetric irreducible representations.