Fermion masses and proton decay in a minimal five-dimensional SO(10) model

We propose a minimal SO(10) model in 5 space-time dimensions. The single extra spatial dimension is compactified on the orbifold S^1/(Z_2 x Z_2') reducing the gauge group to that of Pati-Salam. The breaking down to the standard model group is obtained through an ordinary Higgs mechanism taking place at the Pati-Salam brane, giving rise to a proper gauge coupling unification. We achieve a correct description of fermion masses and mixing angles by describing first and second generations as bulk fields, and by embedding the third generation into four multiplets located at the Pati-Salam brane. The Yukawa sector is simple and compact and predicts a neutrino spectrum of normal hierarchy type. Concerning proton decay, dimension five operators are absent and the essentially unique localization of matter multiplets implies that the minimal couplings between the super-heavy gauge bosons and matter fields are vanishing. Non-minimal interactions are allowed but the resulting dimension six operators describing proton decay are too suppressed to produce observable effects, even in future, super-massive detectors.