E₆ inspired supersymmetric models with exact custodial symmetry

Abstract

The breakdown of E6 gauge symmetry at high energies may lead to supersymmetric models based on the standard model gauge group together with extra U(1)ψ and U(1)χ gauge symmetries. To ensure anomaly cancellation the particle content of these E6 inspired models involves extra exotic states that generically give rise to nondiagonal flavor transitions and rapid proton decay. We argue that a single discrete Z˜H2 symmetry can be used to forbid tree-level flavor changing transitions, as well as the most dangerous baryon and lepton number violating operators. We present 5D and 6D orbifold grand unified theory constructions that lead to the E6 inspired supersymmetric models of this type. The breakdown of U(1)ψ and U(1)χ gauge symmetries that preserves E6 matter parity assignment guarantees that ordinary quarks and leptons and their superpartners, as well as the exotic states which originate from 27 representations of E6, survive to low energies. These E6 inspired models contain two dark matter candidates and must also include additional TeV scale vectorlike lepton or vectorlike down-type quark states to render the lightest exotic quark unstable. We examine gauge coupling unification in these models and discuss their implications for collider phenomenology and cosmology.