R-parity violation (RPV)

R-parity violation permits interactions containing an odd number of superpartners. Renormalizable R-parity-violating interactions can violate lepton number or baryon number, and allowing both generically induces rapid proton decay.

Simultaneous trilinear baryon number and lepton number violation permits a squark to connect the two interactions and induce a dimension-six proton-decay operator. Its coefficient is of order ${\lambda }^{\prime }{\lambda }^{\prime \prime }/m_{\tilde{q}}^2$. A dimensional decay-width estimate then gives ${\Gamma }_p\sim |{\lambda }^{\prime }{\lambda }^{\prime \prime }{|}^2{m}_p^5/m_{\tilde{q}}^4$, up to phase space and hadronic matrix elements. The flavor antisymmetry of $U^c{D}^c{D}^c$ matters: the two down-type flavor indices must differ. For example, ${\lambda }_{112}^{\prime \prime }$ and ${\lambda }_{112}^{\prime }$ allow strange-squark exchange in $p\to e^{+}{\pi }^0$.

The R-parity violation vertices from $LQD$ and $UDD$ can both contain the same down-type squark. Write its linear couplings as $-\tilde{d}A-{\tilde{d}}^{\ast }{A}^{†}$ and its mass term as $-M^2|\tilde{d}{|}^2$. Eliminating it gives $A^{†}A/M^2$. The cross term is $({\lambda }^{\prime }{\lambda }^{\prime \prime \ast }/M^2)(\nu d_L-e{u}_L)(u^{c†}{d}^{c†})+h.c.$, with the color Levi-Civita symbol contracting the three quarks. It changes baryon number and lepton number together and supplies the dimension-six proton-decay operator for $p\to e^{+}{\pi }^0$. The two down-flavor indices in $UDD$ must differ, so strange- or bottom-squark exchange is allowed but identical down flavors vanish.

Exchanging a down-type squark of mass $M$ between $LQD$ and $UDD$ vertices produces a dimension-six effective operator with coefficient $C\sim {\lambda }^{\prime }{\lambda }^{\prime \prime }/M^2$. Dimensional analysis then gives a proton decay width ${\Gamma }_p=c_h|{\lambda }^{\prime }{\lambda }^{\prime \prime }{|}^2{m}_p^5/M^4$, with a dimensionless factor $c_h$ containing hadronic matrix elements and phase space. A lifetime bound ${\tau }_p>{\tau }_{\min }$ implies $|{\lambda }^{\prime }{\lambda }^{\prime \prime }|<M^2/\sqrt{c_h{\tau }_{\min }{m}_p^5}$. The bound is on the relevant flavour product and depends on the exchanged mass; dimensional analysis alone does not determine $c_h$.