New ultraviolet operators in supersymmetric SO(10) GUT and consistent cosmology

Abstract

We consider the minimal supersymmetric grand unified model (MSGUT) based on the group $\mathrm{SO}(10)$, and study conditions leading to possible domain wall (DW) formation. It has been shown earlier that the supersymmetry preserving vacuum expectation values (vev's) get mapped to distinct but degenerate set of vev's under action of $D$ parity, leading to formation of domain walls as topological pseudo-defects. The metastability of such walls can make them relatively long lived and contradict standard cosmology. Thus we are led to consider adding a nonrenormalisable Planck scale suppressed operator, that breaks $\mathrm{SO}(10)$ symmetry but preserves Standard Model symmetry. For a large range of right handed breaking scales $M_R$, this is shown to give rise to the required pressure difference to remove the domain walls without conflicting with consistent big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) while avoiding gravitino overproduction. However, if the walls persist till the onset of weak (thermal) inflation, then a low $\sim 10 - 100$ TeV $M_R$ becomes problematic.