Physics – Nuclear Physics – Nuclear Theory
Scientific paper
2002-06-13
Phys.Rev. D67 (2003) 076007
Physics
Nuclear Physics
Nuclear Theory
13 pages including 6 figures, revised version, to be published in Phys.Rev.D
Scientific paper
10.1103/PhysRevD.67.076007
For neutrons bound inside nuclei, baryon instability can manifest itself as a decay into undetectable particles (e.g., $\it n \to \nu \nu \bar{\nu} $), i.e., as a disappearance of a neutron from its nuclear state. If electric charge is conserved, a similar disappearance is impossible for a proton. The existing experimental lifetime limit for neutron disappearance is 4-7 orders of magnitude lower than the lifetime limits with detectable nucleon decay products in the final state [PDG2000]. In this paper we calculated the spectrum of nuclear de-excitations that would result from the disappearance of a neutron or two neutrons from $^{12}$C. We found that some de-excitation modes have signatures that are advantageous for detection in the modern high-mass, low-background, and low-threshold underground detectors, where neutron disappearance would result in a characteristic sequence of time- and space-correlated events. Thus, in the KamLAND detector [Kamland], a time-correlated triple coincidence of a prompt signal, a captured neutron, and a $\beta^{+}$ decay of the residual nucleus, all originating from the same point in the detector, will be a unique signal of neutron disappearance allowing searches for baryon instability with sensitivity 3-4 orders of magnitude beyond the present experimental limits.
Kamyshkov Yuri
Kolbe Edwin
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