Search for free proton decay, and nucleon decay in /sup 16/O, using the invariant mass and momentum of exclusive final states

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6709221

Blewitt, G

A search for nucleon decay was performed for 37 possible branching modes of nucleons in water, and 14 branching modes of free protons from the hydrogen in water. The data was taken from the IMB water Cherenkov detector, which contains 3300 metric tons in the fiducial volume. In 417 live days, 326 events were reconstructed in the fiducial volume at a rate, and with visible characteristics consistent with atmospheric neutrino interactions. No significant excess of events was found for any nucleon decay mode. For the visible energy and anisotropy analysis, partial lifetime limits at the 90% confidence level were set in the range 10/sup 31 -32/ years for nucleons, assuming that the free and bound lifetimes are similar. With the free proton decay analysis, limits were set in the range 10/sup 30 -32/ years. A framework for converting the results into model-dependent total lifetime limits is described, and limits for SU(5) are explicitly calculated. The results imply an SU(5) model-dependent limit of 4 x 10/sup 31/ years (90% CL) on the total proton lifetime, where effects of the nucleus on the decay rate have been accounted for.

• Research Organization: California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6709221
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645201* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Interactions & Properties-Theoretical-- General & Scattering Theory
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BARYONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
DATA
DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GRAND UNIFIED THEORY
HADRONS
INFORMATION
INTERACTIONS
LEPTONIC DECAY
LIFETIME
LIMITING VALUES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUCLEONS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLE DECAY
PARTICLE MODELS
PROTONS
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
UNIFIED-FIELD THEORIES
WEAK INTERACTIONS
WEAK PARTICLE DECAY