Gauge mediated proton decay in a renormalizable SUSYSO(10) with realistic mass matrices

Proton decay via d = 5 operators is excluded by now not only in the framework of SUSY SU(5) but also its extensions like SUSY SO(10) are on the verge of being inconsistent with d = 5 decays. It is reasonable therefore to suppress, e.g., by a symmetry, the d = 5 operators and to consider gauge boson induced d = 6 decays. This is suggested in several recent papers in the framework of models with a lighter M-X. We discuss here explicity the fermionic sector of such a renormalized SUSY SO(10) xith realistic mass matrices. We find that the recently "observed" large leptonic mixing leads to an enhancement of the nucleon decay channels involving mu 's and, in particular, the mu (+)pi (0), mu (+)pi (-) modes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.