Pathways to proton's stability via naturally small neutrino masses

Abstract

In the present work, the connection between the smallness of the neutrino masses and the stability of the proton is studied. We analyze this connection from different perspectives: the smallness of neutrino mass and the proton stability originate from the same source, small neutrino masses lead to a long lived proton, and the smallness of the proton decay width as a cause of the naturally small neutrino masses. All the schemes are studied in detail and UV realizations are given. We discuss advantages of each scheme and outline further investigation directions.

Comments: 7 pages + supplementary materials, 4+5 figures, 3 tables, submitted to PRD