The minimal supersymmetric SU(5) model assigns a \Z_2
matter parity to the chiral superfields with the matter fields having odd parity and the Higgs having even parity to protect the electroweak Higgs from quadratic radiative mass corrections (the
hierarchy problem). In the non-supersymmetric version the action is invariant under a similar \Z_2 symmetry because the matter fields are all
fermionic and thus must appear in the action in pairs, while the Higgs fields are
bosonic.
Chiral superfields As complex representations:
Superpotential A generic invariant
renormalizable superpotential is a (complex) SU(5)\times\Z_2 invariant cubic polynomial in the superfields. It is a linear combination of the following terms: : \begin{matrix} \Phi^2 & & \Phi^A_B \Phi^B_A \\[4pt] \Phi^3 & & \Phi^A_B \Phi^B_C \Phi^C_A \\[4pt] \mathrm{H}_\mathsf{d}\ \mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u} & & {\mathrm{H}_\mathsf{d}}_A\ {\mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u}}^A \\[4pt] \mathrm{H}_\mathsf{d}\ \Phi\ \mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u} & & {\mathrm{H}_\mathsf{d}}_A\ \Phi^A_B\ {\mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u}}^B \\[4pt] \mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u}\ \mathbf{10}_i \mathbf{10}_j & & \epsilon_{ABCDE}\ {\mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u}}^A\ \mathbf{10}^{BC}_i\ \mathbf{10}^{DE}_j \\[4pt] \mathrm{H}_\mathsf{d}\ \overline{\mathbf{5}}_i \mathbf{10}_j & & {\mathrm{H}_\mathsf{d}}_A\ \overline{\mathbf{5}}_{Bi}\ \mathbf{10}^{AB}_j \\[4pt] \mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u}\ \overline{\mathbf{5}}_i\ {\mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}}_j & & {\mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u}}^A\ \overline{\mathbf{5}}_{Ai}\ {\mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}}_j \\[4pt] {\mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}}_i\ {\mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}}_j & & {\mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}}_i\ {\mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}}_j \\ \end{matrix} The first column is an Abbreviation of the second column (neglecting proper normalization factors), where capital indices are SU(5) indices, and and are the generation indices. The last two rows presupposes the multiplicity of \ \mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}\ is not zero (i.e. that a
sterile neutrino exists). The coupling \ \mathrm{H}_\mathsf{u}\ \mathbf{10}_i\ \mathbf{10}_j\ has coefficients which are symmetric in and . The coupling \ \mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}_i\ \mathrm{N}^\mathsf{c}_j\ has coefficients which are symmetric in and . The number of sterile neutrino
generations need not be three, unless the SU(5) is embedded in a higher unification scheme such as
SO(10).
Vacua The vacua correspond to the mutual zeros of the and terms. Let's first look at the case where the VEVs of all the chiral fields are zero except for .
The sector :\ W = Tr \left [a\Phi^2+b\Phi^3 \right ]\ The zeros corresponds to finding the stationary points of subject to the traceless constraint \ Tr[\Phi]=0 ~. So, \ 2a \Phi+3b\Phi^2 = \lambda \mathbf{1}\ , where is a Lagrange multiplier. Up to an SU(5) (unitary) transformation, :\Phi=\begin{cases} \operatorname{diag}(0,0,0,0,0)\\ \operatorname{diag}(\frac{2a}{9b},\frac{2a}{9b},\frac{2a}{9b},\frac{2a}{9b},-\frac{8a}{9b})\\ \operatorname{diag}(\frac{4a}{3b},\frac{4a}{3b},\frac{4a}{3b},-\frac{2a}{b},-\frac{2a}{b}) \end{cases} The three cases are called case I, II, and III and they break the gauge symmetry into \ SU(5),\ \left[SU(4) \times U(1) \right]/\Z_4\ and \ \left[SU(3)\times SU(2) \times U(1)\right]/\Z_6 respectively (the stabilizer of the VEV). In other words, there are at least three different superselection sections, which is typical for supersymmetric theories. Only case III makes any
phenomenological sense and so, we will focus on this case from now onwards. It can be verified that this solution together with zero VEVs for all the other chiral multiplets is a zero of the
F-terms and
D-terms. The matter parity remains unbroken (right up to the TeV scale).
Decomposition The gauge algebra
24 decomposes as : \begin{pmatrix}(8,1)_0\\(1,3)_0\\(1,1)_0\\(3,2)_{-\frac{5}{6}}\\(\bar{3},2)_{\frac{5}{6}}\end{pmatrix} ~. This
24 is a real representation, so the last two terms need explanation. Both (3,2)_{-\frac{5}{6}} and \ (\bar{3},2)_{\frac{5}{6}}\ are complex representations. However, the direct sum of both representation decomposes into two irreducible real representations and we only take half of the direct sum, i.e. one of the two real irreducible copies. The first three components are left unbroken. The adjoint Higgs also has a similar decomposition, except that it is complex. The
Higgs mechanism causes one real HALF of the \ (3,2)_{-\frac{5}{6}}\ and \ (\bar{3},2)_{\frac{5}{6}}\ of the adjoint Higgs to be absorbed. The other real half acquires a mass coming from the
D-terms. And the other three components of the adjoint Higgs, \ (8,1)_0, (1,3)_0\ and \ (1,1)_0\ acquire GUT scale masses coming from self pairings of the superpotential, \ a\Phi^2 +b \Phi^2 ~. The sterile neutrinos, if any exist, would also acquire a GUT scale Majorana mass coming from the superpotential coupling . Because of matter parity, the matter representations \ \overline{\mathbf{5}}\ and
10 remain chiral. It is the Higgs fields 5 and \ \overline{\mathbf{5}}_\mathrm{H}\ which are interesting. The two relevant superpotential terms here are \ 5_\mathrm{H}\ \bar{5}_\mathrm{H}\ and \ \langle24 \rangle5_\mathrm{H}\ \bar{5}_\mathrm{H} ~. Unless there happens to be some
fine tuning, we would expect both the triplet terms and the doublet terms to pair up, leaving us with no light electroweak doublets. This is in complete disagreement with phenomenology. See
doublet-triplet splitting problem for more details.
Fermion masses ==Problems==