Nonperturbative effects in the Standard Model with gauged 1-form symmetry

Abstract

Abstract We study the Standard Model with gauged $$ {\mathrm{\mathbb{Z}}}_{N=2,3,6}^{(1)} $$ ℤ N = 2 , 3 , 6 1 subgroups of its $$ {\mathrm{\mathbb{Z}}}_6^{(1)} $$ ℤ 6 1 1-form global symmetry, making the gauge group $$ \frac{\mathrm{SU}(3)\times \mathrm{SU}(2)\times \mathrm{U}(1)}{{\mathrm{\mathbb{Z}}}_N} $$ SU 3 × SU 2 × U 1 ℤ N . We show that, on a finite $$ {\mathbbm{T}}^3 $$ T 3 , there are self-dual instantons of fractional topological charge. They mediate baryon- and lepton-number violating processes. We compare their amplitudes to the ones due to the usual BPST-instantons. We find that the small hypercharge coupling suppresses the fractional-instanton contribution, unless the torus size is taken sub-Planckian, or extra matter is added above the weak scale. We also discuss these results in light of the cosmological bounds on the torus size.