arXiv · 2405.17792
JUNO Sensitivity to Invisible Decay Modes of Neutrons
Abstract
We explore the decay of bound neutrons into invisible particles (e.g., $n\rightarrow 3 \nu$ or $nn \rightarrow 2 \nu$) in the JUNO liquid scintillator detector, which do not produce an observable signal. The invisible decay includes two decay modes: $ n \rightarrow { inv} $ and $ nn \rightarrow { inv} $. The invisible decays of $s$-shell neutrons in $^{12}{\rm C}$ will leave a highly excited residual nucleus. Subsequently, some de-excitation modes of the excited residual nuclei can produce a time- and space-correlated triple coincidence signal in the JUNO detector. Based on a full Monte Carlo simulation informed with the latest available data, we estimate all backgrounds, including inverse beta decay events of the reactor antineutrino $\bar{\nu}_e$, natural radioactivity, cosmogenic isotopes and neutral current interactions of atmospheric neutrinos. Pulse shape discrimination and multivariate analysis techniques are employed to further suppress backgrounds. With two years of exposure, JUNO is expected to give an order of magnitude improvement compared to the current best limits. After 10 years of data taking, the JUNO expected sensitivities at a 90% confidence level are $\tau/B( n \rightarrow { inv} ) > 5.0 \times 10^{31} \, {\rm yr}$ and $\tau/B( nn \rightarrow { inv} ) > 1.4 \times 10^{32} \, {\rm yr}$.
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JUNO Collaboration, Angel Abusleme, Thomas Adam, Kai Adamowicz, Shakeel Ahmad, Rizwan Ahmed, Sebastiano Aiello, Fengpeng An, Qi An, Giuseppe Andronico, Nikolay Anfimov, Vito Antonelli, Tatiana Antoshkina, João Pedro Athayde Marcondes de André, Didier Auguste, Weidong Bai, Nikita Balashov, Wander Baldini, Andrea Barresi, Davide Basilico, Eric Baussan, Marco Bellato, Marco Beretta, Antonio Bergnoli, Daniel Bick, Lukas Bieger, Svetlana Biktemerova, Thilo Birkenfeld, Iwan Blake, Simon Blyth, Anastasia Bolshakova, Mathieu Bongrand, Dominique Breton, Augusto Brigatti, Riccardo Brugnera, Riccardo Bruno, Antonio Budano, Jose Busto, Anatael Cabrera, Barbara Caccianiga, Hao Cai, Xiao Cai, Yanke Cai, Zhiyan Cai, Stéphane Callier, Steven Calvez, Antonio Cammi, Agustin Campeny, Chuanya Cao, Guofu Cao, Jun Cao, Rossella Caruso, Cédric Cerna, Vanessa Cerrone, Jinfan Chang, Yun Chang, Auttakit Chatrabhuti, Chao Chen, Guoming Chen, Pingping Chen, Shaomin Chen, Xin Chen, Yiming Chen, Yixue Chen, Yu Chen, Zelin Chen, Zhangming Chen, Zhiyuan Chen, Zikang Chen, Jie Cheng, Yaping Cheng, Yu Chin Cheng, Alexander Chepurnov, Alexey Chetverikov, Davide Chiesa, Pietro Chimenti, Yen-Ting Chin, Po-Lin Chou, Ziliang Chu, Artem Chukanov, Gérard Claverie, Catia Clementi, Barbara Clerbaux, Marta Colomer Molla, Selma Conforti Di Lorenzo, Alberto Coppi, Daniele Corti, Simon Csakli, Chenyang Cui, Flavio Dal Corso, Olivia Dalager, Jaydeep Datta, Christophe De La Taille, Zhi Deng, Ziyan Deng, Xiaoyu Ding, Xuefeng Ding, Yayun Ding, Bayu Dirgantara, Carsten Dittrich. 2024-05-28. JUNO Sensitivity to Invisible Decay Modes of Neutrons. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.17792
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