Implications of the CMS search for W_R on grand unification

The CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider has reported a 2.8σ excess in the (2e)(2jets) channel around 2.1 TeV. Interpretation of this data is reconsidered in terms of the production of a right-handed weak gauge boson, W_R, of the left-right symmetric model and in an SO(10) grand unified theory abiding by the Extended Survival Hypothesis. The left-right symmetric model can be consistent with this excess if (a) the heavy right-handed neutrino has a mass near W_R, or (b) if g_L≠g_R, or (c) the right-handed CKM matrix is nontrivial. Combinations of the above possibilities are also viable. A W_R with a mass in the TeV region if embedded in SO(10) is not compatible with g_L=g_R. Rather, it implies 0.64≤g_R/g_L≤0.78. Further, a unique symmetry-breaking route — the order being left-right discrete symmetry breaking first, followed by SU(4)_C and finally SU(2)_R — to the standard model is picked out. The L↔R discrete symmetry has to be broken at around 10¹⁶ GeV. The grand unification scale is pushed to 10¹⁸ GeV making the detection of proton decay in ongoing searches rather unlikely. The SU(4)_C breaking scale can be at its allowed lower limit of 10⁶ GeV so that n−n̄ oscillation or flavour changing processes such as K_L→μe and B_d,s→μe may be detectable. The Higgs scalar multiplets responsible for SO(10) symmetry breaking at various stages are uniquely identified so long as one adheres to a minimalist principle. We also remark, en passant, about a partially unified Pati-Salam model.