English

Neutron lifetime puzzle and neutron -- mirror neutron oscillation

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2019-06-26 v1

Abstract

The discrepancy between the neutron lifetimes measured in the beam and trap experiments can be explained via the neutron nn conversion into mirror neutron nn', its dark partner from parallel mirror sector, provided that nn and nn' have a tiny mass splitting order 10710^{-7} eV. In large magnetic fields used in beam experiments nnn-n' transition is resonantly enhanced and can transform of about a per cent fraction of neutrons into mirror neutrons which decay in invisible mode. Thus less protons will be produced and the measured value τbeam\tau_{\rm beam} appears larger than β\beta-decay time τβ=τtrap\tau_{\beta} = \tau_{\rm trap}. Some phenomenological and astrophysical consequences of this scenario are also briefly discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1807.07906,
  title  = {Neutron lifetime puzzle and neutron -- mirror neutron oscillation},
  author = {Zurab Berezhiani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1807.07906},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

6 pages, 2 figures