2024/09/12 by Rouzbeh Allahverdi, A. Thompson, Allahverdi, Rouzbeh +3 · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2409.08178
openalex publication_date 2024/09/12 · openalex created_date 2024/10/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Rare processes in laboratory and within astrophysical environments can be highly sensitive probes of baryon-number violating interactions at the TeV scale. We demonstrate the power of neutron stars to constrain baryon number violation by considering a minimal extension of the standard model involving a TeV-mass scalar mediator and a GeV scale Majorana fermion ψ. We find that a ΔB = 2 mass-loss process in binary pulsar systems via n → γψ and the subsequent scattering ψn → π- K+ places stringent constraints on the model parameter space. These limits will become much stronger, due to the possibility of Λ→ γψ decays at the tree level, if the neutron star equation of state is hyperonic. We compare these constraints with ongoing and future collider experiments, n-n oscillations, and dinucleon decay searches at future large-scale neutrino experiments, finding that the binary pulsars bounds on couplings are significantly tighter for specific flavor combinations.