Lattice QCD Method To Study Proton Decay

Abstract

The proton decay has not been experimentally observed with the lower limit of the proton lifetime being $\gtrsim 10^{34}$ years which is more than the age of the universe. One of the important quantity that appears in the study of the proton decay is the proton decay matrix element which is a non-perturbative quantity in QCD which cannot be calculated by using the perturbative QCD (pQCD) method but it can be calculated by using the lattice QCD method. In this paper we formulate the lattice QCD method to study the proton decay matrix element. We derive the non-perturbative formula of the proton decay matrix element from the first principle in QCD which can be calculated by using the lattice QCD method.