{
  "abstract": "A discrete, anomaly-free $\\mathbb Z_9$ gauge symmetry may persist to the deep infrared, exactly forbidding proton decay. This $\\mathbb Z_9$ can emerge from Higgsing a lepton-flavour non-universal $U(1)_X$ that generates realistic neutrino masses and mixings through a high-scale seesaw and predicts an additional light Goldstone. Adding an anomaly-free chiral heavy-quark sector turns this mode into the QCD axion. The same selection rules that ban proton decay also forbid PQ-violating operators below a suitably high dimension, $d_{\\rm PQ}\\gtrsim10$, including operators involving the heavy quarks that radiatively match onto the scalar potential. We construct explicit models viable when PQ breaking occurs before or after inflation; in the latter case, avoiding stable heavy relics and eliminating the string-wall network tightly constrain the heavy-quark spectrum. We identify restricted regions of parameter space where thermal leptogenesis remains viable and, for $d_{\\rm PQ}\\geq13$, can coexist with a high-quality axion constituting all of the dark matter.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.01712",
  "author_total": 3,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Joe Davighi"
    },
    {
      "name": "Admir Greljo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Xavier Ponce Díaz"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4vet3rfw26zw8.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.01712",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "4vet3rfw26zw8",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01712",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "astro-ph.CO"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7207759407",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.01712",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-01",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4vet3rfw26zw8.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:18:16Z",
      "native_id": "2609.01712",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01712"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "astronomy",
      "origin": "arxiv:astro-ph.CO",
      "subfield": "cosmology"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-ph",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Axion Quality from Exact Proton Stability",
  "title_text": "Axion Quality from Exact Proton Stability",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:18:16Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4vet3rfw26zw8",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}