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arXiv · 1803.00035

Proton decay and light sterile neutrinos

Juan C. Helo·Martin Hirsch·Toshihiko Ota
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Abstract

Within the standard model, non-renormalizable operators at dimension six ($d=6$) violate baryon and lepton number by one unit and thus lead to proton decay. Here, we point out that the proton decay mode with a charged pion and missing energy can be a characteristic signature of $d=6$ operators containing a light sterile neutrino, if it is not accompanied by the standard $π^0e^+$ final state. We discuss this effect first at the level of effective operators and then provide a concrete model with new physics at the TeV scale, in which the lightness of the active neutrinos and the stability of the proton are related.

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Juan C. Helo, Martin Hirsch, Toshihiko Ota. 2018-07-11. Proton decay and light sterile neutrinos. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep06(2018)047

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