Nucleon Decays into Light New Particles in Neutrino Detectors
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arXiv
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| Hauptverfasser: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866911150902345728 |
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| author | Heeck, Julian Shoemaker, Ian M. |
| author_facet | Heeck, Julian Shoemaker, Ian M. |
| contents | Proton and neutron decays into light new particles $X$ can drastically change the experimental signatures and benefit from the complementarity of large water-Cherenkov neutrino detectors such as Super/Hyper-Kamiokande and tracking detectors such as JUNO and DUNE. The proton decays $p\to \ell^+ X$ and $p\to π^+ X$ with $m_X$ near phase-space closure lead to charged particles below Cherenkov threshold, rendering them practically invisible in Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande but not in JUNO and DUNE, which are therefore uniquely positioned for these baryon-number-violating signatures despite their smaller size. As an additional signature, such nucleon decays in Earth can produce a sizable flux of $X$ particles in underground detectors. We present a simple model in which nucleons decay into sub-GeV sterile neutrinos that subsequently decay through active-sterile neutrino mixing, with a promisingly large number of events in Super-Kamiokande even in the seesaw-motivated parameter space. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_08090 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Nucleon Decays into Light New Particles in Neutrino Detectors Heeck, Julian Shoemaker, Ian M. High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Experiment Proton and neutron decays into light new particles $X$ can drastically change the experimental signatures and benefit from the complementarity of large water-Cherenkov neutrino detectors such as Super/Hyper-Kamiokande and tracking detectors such as JUNO and DUNE. The proton decays $p\to \ell^+ X$ and $p\to π^+ X$ with $m_X$ near phase-space closure lead to charged particles below Cherenkov threshold, rendering them practically invisible in Super- and Hyper-Kamiokande but not in JUNO and DUNE, which are therefore uniquely positioned for these baryon-number-violating signatures despite their smaller size. As an additional signature, such nucleon decays in Earth can produce a sizable flux of $X$ particles in underground detectors. We present a simple model in which nucleons decay into sub-GeV sterile neutrinos that subsequently decay through active-sterile neutrino mixing, with a promisingly large number of events in Super-Kamiokande even in the seesaw-motivated parameter space. |
| title | Nucleon Decays into Light New Particles in Neutrino Detectors |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Experiment |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08090 |