Baryon-number violation by two units and the deuteron lifetime

Abstract

We calculate the lifetime of the deuteron with dimension-nine quark operators that violate baryon number by two units. We construct an effective field theory for $|\Delta B|=2$ interactions that give rise to neutron-antineutron ($n$-$\bar{n}$) oscillations and dinucleon decay within a consistent power counting. We calculate the ratio of the deuteron lifetime to the square of the $n$-$\bar{n}$ oscillation time up to next-to-leading order. Our result, which is analytical and has a quantified uncertainty, is smaller by a factor $\simeq 2.5$ than earlier estimates based on nuclear models, which impacts the indirect bound on he $n$-$\bar{n}$ oscillation time and future experiments. We discuss how combined measurements of $n$-$\bar{n}$ oscillations and deuteron decay can help to identify the sources of baryon-number violation.

References in corpus (3)

• Simplified models with baryon number violation but no proton decay
• Energy-dependent partial-wave analysis of all antiproton-proton scattering data below 925 MeV/c
• Chiral Perturbation Theory for Neutron-antineutron Oscillations

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Inclusive Nucleon Decay Searches as a Frontier of Baryon Number Violation
• Neutron-Antineutron Oscillation Search using a 0.37 Megaton$\cdot$Year Exposure of Super-Kamiokande
• Neutron Stars with Baryon Number Violation, Probing Dark Sectors
• Antiproton physics
• Neutron-antineutron oscillations in the deuteron studied with $NN$ and $\bar{N}N$ interactions based on chiral effective field theory
• $\Delta B=2$ neutron decay into antiproton mode $n\to \bar{p}{e}^{+}\nu (\bar{\nu })$
• Renormalization of One-Pion Exchange in Chiral Effective Field Theory for Antinucleon-Nucleon Scattering