English

Neutron's Dark Secret

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2020-10-13 v1

Abstract

The existing discrepancy between neutron lifetime measurements in bottle and beam experiments has been interpreted as a sign of the neutron decaying to dark particles. We summarize the current status of this proposal, including a discussion of particle physics models involving such a portal between the Standard Model and a baryonic dark sector. We also review further theoretical developments around this idea and elaborate on the prospects for verifying the neutron dark decay hypothesis in current and upcoming experiments.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2007.13931,
  title  = {Neutron's Dark Secret},
  author = {Bartosz Fornal and Benjamin Grinstein},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.13931},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

19 pages, 4 figures; Invited review for Modern Physics Letters A

R2 v1 2026-06-23T17:27:03.265Z