Exotic bosons

Summary

We compile and classify all possible exotic bosons which have the quantum numbers of a pair of fundamental fermions, and find four families characterized by — (1/2) Δ(B - L) = 0, 1/3, 2/3 and 1. Effective Lagrangians are analysed to estimate the contributions of these exotic bosons toB- andL-violating processes. In particular, Δ(B - L) = 0 contributions to proton decay as well as ΔB = 2 and ΔL = 2 processes contributing to neutron oscillations and the neutrino mass are used to deduce lower mass bounds on these exotic bosons. We find that a wide range of masses is possible, some as low as 10³ GeV, the existence of which may become testable in the near future.