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Title: Experimental limit for nucleon stability against charge-nonconserving decay

Journal Article · · Phys. Rev. D; (United States)

This result of a search for a nucleon decay bound in a nucleus has been described in this work for the charge-nonconserving decay /sup 87/Rb..-->../sup 87m/Sr+neutrals. /sup 87m/Sr activities separated from 800 g of Rb/sub 2/CO/sub 3/ chemically were counted in a twin Si(Li) detector system using the K-conversion electron and K x-ray coincidence technique by looking at the 2.8-h isomeric decay of 388.4-keV M4 transition in /sup 87m/Sr. With modest shielding the background level has been reduced to 3 x 10/sup -4/ keV/sup -1/h/sup -1/, yielding a lower limit of > or =7.5 x 10/sup 19/ yr on the mean life against the charge-nonconserving decay of a nucleon. This result sets an upper limit on the ratio of the charge-nonconserving to the normal weak-interaction decay width of a nucleon, GAMMA(n..-->..p+..nu../sub e/+nu-bar/sub e/) / GAMMA(n..-->..p+e/sup -/+nu-bar/sub e/)< or =7.9 x 10/sup -21/.

Research Organization:
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay 400 005, India
OSTI ID:
6265023
Journal Information:
Phys. Rev. D; (United States), Vol. 27:3
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English