GUT Inflation and Proton Decay after WMAP5

We employ Coleman-Weinberg and Higgs potentials to implement inflation in non-supersymmetric grand unified theories (GUTs) such as SU(5) and SO(10). To realize a scalar spectral index close to 0.96, as indicated by the most recent WMAP 5-year anlaysis, the energy scale of observable inflation turns out to be of order $10^{16}$ GeV. This implies a GUT symmetry breaking scale of similar magnitude, and proton lifetime of order $10^{34}$-$10^{38}$ years. In some SO(10) models with axion dark matter, the scalar leptoquark boson exchange leads to proton decay with a lifetime of order $10^{34}$-$10^{35}$ years.

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