Baryon- and lepton-number violation by electroweak instantons

Journal Article · Mon Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1982 · Phys. Rev. D; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.25.825· OSTI ID:5654345

Noble, R J

We make a quantitative study of instanton-induced baryon- and lepton-number-violating processes in an SU(2) x U(1) electroweak gauge theory at zero and finite temperatures (in the ''dilute-instanton-gas'' approximation). As an example we consider a simplified model involving only the proton, neutron, electron, and electron neutrino. At zero temperature the total cross sections for p+n..-->.. e-bar+nu-bar and eleven other similar reactions are of order s x 10/sup -195/ cm/sup 2/, where s is the total center-of-momentum energy squared in GeV/sup 2/. The neutron decays via n..-->..p-bar+e-bar+nu-bar with a lifetime of the order 10/sup 146/ years. The cross sections and neutron decay width decrease with temperature because color-electric-charge screening reduces the self-dual-instanton density at finite temperature. At high temperature the cross sections (for a given s) and neutron decay width fall off as T/sup -47/3/ in this simplified model. It is suggested that correctly treating the instanton gas as very dense (as discussed by Berg, Luscher, and Stehr) and including finite-energy tunneling solutions could increase the predicted reaction rates.

• Research Organization: Loomis Laboratory of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801
• OSTI ID: 5654345
• Journal Information: Phys. Rev. D; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Rev. D; (United States) Vol. 25:3; ISSN PRVDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645202* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Theoretical-- Electromagnetic Interactions & Properties
645203 -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Theoretical-- Weak Interactions & Properties
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BARYON NUMBER
BARYONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
CROSS SECTIONS
DECAY
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERACTIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FUNCTIONS
HADRONS
INSTANTONS
INTERACTIONS
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
LEPTON NUMBER
LIE GROUPS
LIFETIME
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NEUTRONS
NUCLEONS
PARTICLE DECAY
PARTICLE MODELS
QUASI PARTICLES
SU GROUPS
SU-2 GROUPS
SYMMETRY GROUPS
TOTAL CROSS SECTIONS
U GROUPS
U-1 GROUPS
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
WEAK INTERACTIONS