Abstract
Baryon number violation, a key, non-perturbative prediction of the Standard Model (SM) via electroweak instantons (sphalerons), has never been definitively observed. However, its relationship to baryogenesis is obscure, and, within the context of the SM, seems to require fine tuning and complex dynamics to occur mere instants after the chaos of the Big Bang began. Post-sphaleron baryogenesis (PSB), a SM extension first proposed by Babu et al. in 2006, seems to compellingly quell many of these theoretical conundrums while effectively predicting the baryon abundance, and simultaneously offering a tantalizing experimental observable: neutron–antineutron transformations (n → n̅). This rare event, a phenomena similar to meson oscillations, can be thought of as a form of dinucleon decay, and is hypothesized to occur for both the free and bound neutron; what's more, within the context of PSB, there exits an upper limit on the free neutron transformation rate. The subject of the relatedness of the free and bound rates promises a wealth of exciting nuclear and high-energy physics, and the complimentary nature of both types of experimental searches argues for their mutual necessity. In this paper, we briefly discuss the physics of the transformation, and our groups' plans to search for this critically important phenomena using both the free and bound neutron.
Highlights
It is known that the Standard Model (SM) is simultaneously a fantastically successful theory of the underlying nature of microscopic reality while remaining incomplete in several important regimes
These regimes include a microscopic and dynamic understanding the baryon (B) asymmetry of the universe (BAU) along with the ultimate stability of matter itself. These two are possibly inextricably linked through beyond the SM (BSM) baryon minus lepton (B − L) number violating processes, a key requirement of the Sakharov conditions [1], the renormalizability of the SM [2], and post-sphaleron baryogenesis [3,4,5]. Such B − L violating BSM processes generally fall under dinucleon or nucleon decay (NDK) searches, among them neutron-antineutron transformation (n → n ) [4,5,6] and arguably proton decay (PDK)
In continuation of similar efforts discussed in [34], it is necessary that the simulation of new, reliable, νatm background samples within the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) ten kiloton liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) detector modules utilize cross sections for electron and ν scattering developed at LANL/ANL from ab-initio quantum Monte
Summary
It is known that the Standard Model (SM) is simultaneously a fantastically successful theory of the underlying nature of microscopic reality while remaining incomplete in several important regimes These regimes include a microscopic and dynamic understanding the baryon (B) asymmetry of the universe (BAU) along with the ultimate stability of matter itself. Future high-energy probing experiments could potentially test theories predicting n → n , opening the door to the prospect of discovering the mechanism behind the BAU Key among these include bright neutron sources, such as the European Spallation Source (ESS) for a free neutron search, and large underground experiments, such as the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) and Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) for bound neutron searches (within argon and oxygen, respectively). A key question in this regard is to what degree the remarkable advances in tagging the interaction products in underground experiments such as Dune can be supported by detailed models of the nuclear dynamics (for example pion scattering and absorption) in target nuclei
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