Search for dinucleon decay into pions at Super-Kamiokande

A search for dinucleon decay into pions with the Super-Kamiokande detector has been performed with an exposure of 282.1 kiloton-years. Dinucleon decay is a process that violates baryon number by two units. We present the first search for dinucleon decay to pions in a large water Cherenkov detector. The modes $^{16}$O$(pp) \rightarrow$ $^{14}$C$π^{+}π^{+}$, $^{16}$O$(pn) \rightarrow$ $^{14}$N$π^{+}π^{0}$, and $^{16}$O$(nn) \rightarrow$ $^{14}$O$π^{0}π^{0}$ are investigated. No significant excess in the Super-Kamiokande data has been found, so a lower limit on the lifetime of the process per oxygen nucleus is determined. These limits are: $τ_{pp\rightarrowπ^{+}π^{+}} > 7.22 \times 10^{31}$ years, $τ_{pn\rightarrowπ^{+}π^{0}} > 1.70 \times 10^{32}$ years, and $τ_{nn\rightarrowπ^{0}π^{0}} > 4.04 \times 10^{32}$ years. The lower limits on each mode are about two orders of magnitude better than previous limits from searches for dinucleon decay in iron.

No reviews yet.

No comments yet.