Search for dinucleon decay into pions at Super-Kamiokande

J. Gustafson, K. Abe, Y. Haga, Y. Hayato, M. Ikeda, K. Iyogi, J. Kameda, Y. Kishimoto, M. Miura, S. Moriyama, M. Nakahata, T. Nakajima, Y. Nakano, S. Nakayama, A. Orii, H. Sekiya, M. Shiozawa, A. Takeda, H. Tanaka, T. TomuraR. A. Wendell, T. Irvine, T. Kajita, I. Kametani, K. Kaneyuki, Y. Nishimura, E. Richard, K. Okumura, L. Labarga, P. Fernandez, S. Berkman, H. A. Tanaka, S. Tobayama, E. Kearns, J. L. Raaf, J. L. Stone, L. R. Sulak, M. Goldhaber, G. Carminati, W. R. Kropp, S. Mine, P. Weatherly, A. Renshaw, M. B. Smy, H. W. Sobel, V. Takhistov, K. S. Ganezer, B. L. Hartfiel, J. Hill, N. Hong, J. Y. Kim, I. T. Lim, T. Akiri, A. Himmel, K. Scholberg, C. W. Walter, T. Wongjirad, T. Ishizuka, S. Tasaka, J. S. Jang, J. G. Learned, S. Matsuno, S. N. Smith, T. Hasegawa, T. Ishida, T. Ishii, T. Kobayashi, T. Nakadaira, K. Nakamura, Y. Oyama, K. Sakashita, T. Sekiguchi, T. Tsukamoto, A. T. Suzuki, Y. Takeuchi, T. Yano, S. Hirota, K. Huang, K. Ieki, T. Kikawa, A. Minamino, T. Nakaya, K. Suzuki, S. Takahashi, Y. Fukuda, K. Choi, Y. Itow, G. Mitsuka, T. Suzuki, P. Mijakowski, J. Hignight, J. Imber, C. K. Jung, J. L. Palomino, C. Yanagisawa, H. Ishino, T. Kayano, A. Kibayashi, Y. Koshio, T. Mori, M. Sakuda, Y. Kuno, R. Tacik, S. B. Kim, H. Okazawa, Y. Choi, K. Nishijima, M. Koshiba, Y. Suda, Y. Totsuka, M. Yokoyama, C. Bronner, K. Martens, Ll Marti, Y. Suzuki, M. R. Vagins, J. F. Martin, P. De Perio, A. Konaka, M. J. Wilking, S. Chen, Y. Zhang, R. J. Wilkes

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Abstract

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 O16(pp)→C14π+π+, O16(pn)→N14π+π0, and O16(nn)→O14π0π0 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 τpp→π+π+>7.22×1031years, τpn→π+π0>1.70×1032years, and τnn→π0π0>4.04×1032years. The lower limits on each mode are about 2 orders of magnitude better than previous limits from searches for dinucleon decay in iron.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number072009
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume91
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 28 2015
Externally publishedYes

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© 2015 American Physical Society.

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