nLab R-parity

Idea

In the plain minimally supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), baryon/lepton number would not need to be preserved. Since however experimental observation indicates that these quantum observables are preserved to high accuracy, a common ad hoc solution in bottom-up model-building is to impose a certain Z/2-action on the MSSM as a global symmetry, called R-parity, which does enforce baryon/lepton number conservation.

From a top-down model building-perspective there is the rough idea that R-parity may be thought of as a discrete remnant of R-symmetry (e.g. Chamseddine-Dreiner 96, p. 2, Frugiuele-Gregoire 11)

There remain speculations that even if MSSM-like models are realistic, R-parity might in fact be violated in nature after all, such as as possibly indicated by the apparent flavour anomalies (Wang-Yang-Yuan 19).

References

The original articles are

• Savas Dimopoulos, Howard Georgi, Softly broken supersymmetry and $SU(5)$, Nuclear Physics B Volume 193, Issue 1, 21 1981 (doi:10.1016/0550-3213(81)90522-8)

• N. Z. Sakai, Naturalnes in supersymmetric GUTS Zeitschrift für Physik C Particles and Fields (1981) 11: 153 (doi:10.1007/BF01573998)

• Hans-Peter Nilles, Stuart Raby, Supersymmetry and the strong CP problem, Nuclear Physics B Volume 198, Issue 1, 26 April 1982 (doi:10.1016/0550-3213(82)90547-8)

• N. Sakai, Tsutomu Yanagida, Proton decay in a class of supersymmetric grand unified models, Nuclear Physics B Volume 197, Issue 3, 12 April 1982, Pages 533-542 (doi:10.1016/0550-3213(82)90457-6)

• Savas Dimopoulos, Stuart Raby, Frank Wilczek, Proton decay in supersymmetric models, Physics Letters B Volume 112, Issue 2, 6 May 1982, Pages 133-136 (doi:10.1016/0370-2693(82)90313-6)

See also

• Wikipedia R-symmetry

Discussion of possible relation to R-symmetry:

• Ali Chamseddine, Herbi Dreiner, Anomaly-Free Gauged R-Symmetry in Local Supersymmetry, Nucl.Phys. B458 (1996) 65-89 (arXiv:hep-ph/9504337)

• Claudia Frugiuele, Thomas Gregoire, Making the Sneutrino a Higgs with a $U(1)_R$ Lepton Number, PhysRev D.85.015016 (arXiv:1107.4634)

In SemiSpin(32)-heterotic string phenomenology:

• Saul Ramos-Sanchez, Section 5.4 of Towards Low Energy Physics from the Heterotic String, Fortsch. Phys. 10:907-1036, 2009 (arXiv:0812.3560)

Suggestion that the MSSM with R-parity violation could explain the flavour anomalies:

• Dong-Yang Wang, Ya-Dong Yang, Xing-Bo Yuan, $b \to c \tau \bar \nu$ decays in supersymmetry with R-parity violation (arXiv:1905.08784)

• Quan-Yi Hu, Lin-Lin Huang, Explaining $b\to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ data by sneutrinos in the R-parity violating MSSM (arXiv:1912.03676)

• Quan-Yi Hu, Ya-Dong Yang, Min-Di Zheng, Revisiting the B-physics anomalies in R-parity violating MSSM (arXiv:2002.09875)

• Wolfgang Altmannshofer, P. S. Bhupal Dev, Amarjit Soni, Yicong Sui, Addressing $R_{D^\ast}$, $R_{K^\ast}$, muon $g-2$ and ANITA anomalies in a minimal R-parity violating supersymmetric framework (arXiv:2002.12910)