One-loop proton decay from Peccei-Quinn symmetry
Abstract
We promote the accidental B+L symmetry of the Standard Model to a Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry while realizing spontaneous proton decay radiatively. The PQ anomaly sector consists of vector-like quarks (VLQs), providing a Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov-type axion solution to the strong CP problem. After spontaneous PQ breaking, a residual 𝒵2 symmetry remains, which forbids tree-level proton decay. The VLQs required to generate the QCD anomaly, together with scalar mediators, odd under the residual 𝒵2, induce one-loop proton decay through the effective operator uR uR dR eR. We study its ultraviolet completions, featuring distinct vector-like fermion and scalar representations, and show that the resulting models lead to distinct predictions for the axion-to-photon coupling, testable in helioscope and haloscope experiments. We investigate proton and neutron decay pheneomenology focusing on the channel p → e+ π0. We also discuss axion dark matter in pre- and post-inflationary cosmology.
Versions
Related
- Accidental Peccei-Quinn symmetry from chiral gauge symmetry and mirror QCD
- Gravitational Waves from Dimension-6 Assisted Peccei - Quinn Phase Transitions
- A Peccei-Quinn Origin for Inelastic Electroweak Dark Matter after LUX-ZEPLIN
- A measurement of the Higgs boson mass in the diphoton decay channel in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV
- A measurement of the Higgs boson mass in the diphoton decay channel in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV
BibTeX
@misc{camara2026oneloop,
title = {{One-loop proton decay from Peccei-Quinn symmetry}},
author = {H. B. Câmara},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.02026},
eprint = {2607.02026},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02026},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - One-loop proton decay from Peccei-Quinn symmetry
AU - H. B. Câmara
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.02026
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.02026
AB - We promote the accidental B+L symmetry of the Standard Model to a Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry while realizing spontaneous proton decay radiatively. The PQ anomaly sector consists of vector-like quarks (VLQs), providing a Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zakharov-type axion solution to the strong CP problem. After spontaneous PQ breaking, a residual 𝒵_2 symmetry remains, which forbids tree-level proton decay. The VLQs required to generate the QCD anomaly, together with scalar mediators, odd under the residual 𝒵_2, induce one-loop proton decay through the effective operator u_R u_R d_R e_R. We study its ultraviolet completions, featuring distinct vector-like fermion and scalar representations, and show that the resulting models lead to distinct predictions for the axion-to-photon coupling, testable in helioscope and haloscope experiments. We investigate proton and neutron decay pheneomenology focusing on the channel p → e^+ π^0. We also discuss axion dark matter in pre- and post-inflationary cosmology.
ER -