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2021•Physical review. D/Physical review. D.Open access

Neutron-antineutron oscillation search using a 0.37 megaton-years exposure of Super-Kamiokande

K. Abe, C. Bronner, Y. Hayato, M. Ikeda, S. Imaizumi, Hiroshi Itô, J. Kameda, Y. Kataoka, M. Miura, S. Moriyama, Y. Nagao, M. Nakahata, Y. Nakajima, S. Nakayama, T. Okada, K. Okamoto, A. Orii, G. Pronost, H. Sekiya, M. Shiozawa, Y. Sonoda, Y. Suzuki, A. Takeda, Y. Takemoto, A. Takenaka, Hiroyuki Tanaka, T. Yano, R. Akutsu, S. Han, T. Kajita, K. Okumura, T. Tashiro, R. Wang, J. Xia, D. Bravo, L. Labarga, Ll. Marti, B. Zaldivar, F. d. M. Blaszczyk, E. Kearns, J. Gustafson, J. L. Raaf, J. L. Stone, L. Wan, T. Wester, J. M. Bian, N. J. Griskevich, W. R. Kropp, S. Locke, S. Mine, Michael Smy, H. W. Sobel, Volodymyr Takhistov, P. Weatherly, J. Hill, J. Y. Kim, I. T. Lim, R. G. Park, B. Bodur, K. Scholberg, C. W. Walter, A. Coffani, O. Drapier, S. El Hedri, A. Giampaolo, M. Gonin, Th. A. Mueller, P. Paganini, B. Quilain, T. Ishizuka, T. Nakamura, Jinhyeok Jang, J. G. Learned, L. H. V. Anthony, A. A. Sztuc, Y. Uchida, V. Berardi, M.G. Catanesi, E. Radicioni, N. F. Calabria, L. N. Machado, G. De Rosa, G. Collazuol, F. Iacob, M. Lamoureux, N. Ospina, L. Ludovici, Y. Nishimura, S. Cao, M. Friend, T. Hasegawa, T. Ishida, T. Kobayashi, T. Matsubara, T. Nakadaira, M. Jakkapu, K. Nakamura, Y. Oyama, K. Sakashita, T. Sekiguchi, T. Tsukamoto, Y. Nakano, T. Shiozawa, A. T. Suzuki, Y. Takeuchi, S. Yamamoto, A. Ali, Y. Ashida, J. Feng, S. Hirota, A. K. Ichikawa, T. Kikawa, M. Mori, T. Nakaya, R. A. Wendell, K. Yasutome, P. Fernández, N. McCauley, P. Mehta, A. Pritchard, K. M. Tsui, Y. Fukuda, Y. Itow, H. Menjo, T. Niwa, Kazuya Sato, M. Tsukada, P. Mijakowski, M. Posiadała-Zezula, C. K. Jung, C. Vilela, M. J. Wilking, C. Yanagisawa, Masayuki Harada, K. Hagiwara, T. Horai, H. Ishino, S. Ito, Y. Koshio, W. Y., N. Piplani, S. Sakai, Y. Kuno, G. Barr, D. Barrow, L. Cook, A. Goldsack, S. Samani, Charles Simpson, D. Wark, F. Nova, T. Boschi, F. Di Lodovico, S. Molina Sedgwick, M. Taani, S. Zsoldos, J. Y. Yang, S. J. Jenkins, J. M. McElwee, M. D. Thiesse, L. F. Thompson, M. Malek, O. Stone, H. Okazawa, S. B. Kim, I. Yu, K. Nishijima, M. Koshiba, N. Ogawa, K. Iwamoto, M. Yokoyama, K. Martens, M. R. Vagins, M. Kuze, S. Izumiyama, M. Tanaka, T. Yoshida, Michiaki Inomoto, M. Ishitsuka, R. Matsumoto, K. Ohta, M. Shinoki, J. F. Martin, H. A. Tanaka, T. Towstego, M. Hartz, A. Konaka, P. de Perio, N. W. Prouse, B. W. Pointon, S. Chen, B.D Xu, B. Richards, B. Jamieson, J. Walker, A. Minamino, K. Okamoto, G. Pintaudi, Ryu Sasaki

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Abstract

As a baryon number violating process with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}B=2$, neutron-antineutron oscillation ($n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$) provides a unique test of baryon number conservation. We have performed a search for $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$ oscillation with bound neutrons in Super-Kamiokande, with the full dataset from its first four run periods, representing an exposure of $0.37\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Mton}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{years}$. The search used a multivariate analysis trained on simulated $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$ events and atmospheric neutrino backgrounds and resulted in 11 candidate events with an expected background of 9.3 events. In the absence of statistically significant excess, we derived a lower limit on $\overline{n}$ appearance lifetime in $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ nuclei of $3.6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{32}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{years}$ and on the neutron-antineutron oscillation time of ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}}>4.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{8}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{s}$ at 90% C.L.

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As a baryon number violating process with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}B=2$, neutron-antineutron oscillation ($n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$) provides a unique test of baryon number conservation. We have performed a search for $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$ oscillation with bound neutrons in Super-Kamiokande, with the full dataset from its first four run periods, representing an exposure of $0.37\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Mton}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{years}$. The search used a multivariate analysis trained on simulated $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$ events and atmospheric neutrino backgrounds and resulted in 11 candidate events with an expected background of 9.3 events. In the absence of statistically significant excess, we derived a lower limit on $\overline{n}$ appearance lifetime in $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ nuclei of $3.6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{32}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{years}$ and on the neutron-antineutron oscillation time of ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}}>4.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{8}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{s}$ at 90% C.L.

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Available abstract

As a baryon number violating process with $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}B=2$, neutron-antineutron oscillation ($n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$) provides a unique test of baryon number conservation. We have performed a search for $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$ oscillation with bound neutrons in Super-Kamiokande, with the full dataset from its first four run periods, representing an exposure of $0.37\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{Mton}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{years}$. The search used a multivariate analysis trained on simulated $n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}$ events and atmospheric neutrino backgrounds and resulted in 11 candidate events with an expected background of 9.3 events. In the absence of statistically significant excess, we derived a lower limit on $\overline{n}$ appearance lifetime in $^{16}\mathrm{O}$ nuclei of $3.6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{32}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{years}$ and on the neutron-antineutron oscillation time of ${\ensuremath{\tau}}_{n\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\overline{n}}>4.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{8}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{s}$ at 90% C.L.

Key concepts: Super-Kamiokande, Neutron, Oscillation (cell signaling), Environmental science, Physics, Nuclear physics, Chemistry, Neutrino oscillation

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Neutron-antineutron oscillation search using a 0.37 megaton-years exposure of Super-Kamiokande — Research Paper | ScholarLens