Do the SM gauge forces unify into a single group? · revision history

Revision 2

Accepted · core change · record

Changes against revision 1:

Title
Do the SM gauge forces unify into a single group?
Plain · changed
Revision 1: The strengths of the three forces change with energy and nearly meet near $1e16\, \mathrm{GeV}$. Whether they truly become one force is unknown.
Revision 2: The strengths of the three forces change with energy and nearly meet near $10^{16}\, \mathrm{GeV}$. Whether they truly become one force is unknown.
Precise · changed · core
Revision 1: Determine whether SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) embeds in a simple group ($\mathrm{SU}(5), \mathrm{SO}(10), \mathrm{E6}$) broken near $M_{\mathrm{GUT}} \sim 1e15\ \text{to}\ 1e16\,\mathrm{GeV}$. In the SM the three couplings do not meet at a point; in the MSSM they meet at $\sim 2e16\,\mathrm{GeV}$. An answer is an observation of a unification-specific effect such as proton decay with a branching pattern fixed by the group.
Revision 2: Determine whether SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) embeds in a simple group ($\mathrm{SU}(5), \mathrm{SO}(10), \mathrm{E6}$) broken near $M_{\mathrm{GUT}} \sim 10^{15}\ \text{to}\ 10^{16}\,\mathrm{GeV}$. In the SM the three couplings do not meet at a point; in the MSSM they meet at $\sim 2 \times 10^{16}\,\mathrm{GeV}$. An answer is an observation of a unification-specific effect such as proton decay with a branching pattern fixed by the group.
Settled by
Detection of proton decay in one or more channels with branching ratios matching a specific GUT.
Kind
well-posed
Answer type
yes-no
References
(empty)
Literature status
open
Status note
(empty)
Posed since
1974

Decisions