Related papers: Neutron Stars with Baryon Number Violation, Probin…
There is a long-standing discrepancy between the neutron lifetime measured in beam and bottle experiments. We propose to explain this anomaly by a dark decay channel for the neutron, involving one or more dark sector particles in the final…
Neutron-antineutron oscillations are considered in the light of recently proposed particle models, which claim to resolve the neutron lifetime anomaly, indicating the existence of baryon violating $\Delta B=1$ interactions. Possible…
It was recently suggested that the discrepancy between two methods of measuring the lifetime of the neutron may be a result of an unseen decay mode into a dark matter particle which is almost degenerate with the neutron. We explore the…
Tensions in the measurements of neutron and kaon weak decays, such as of the neutron lifetime, may speak to the existence of new particles and dynamics not present in the Standard Model (SM). In scenarios with dark sectors, particles that…
Exotic new particles carrying baryon number and with mass of order the nucleon mass have been proposed for various reasons including baryogenesis, dark matter, mirror worlds, and the neutron lifetime puzzle. We show that the existence of…
We investigate new and unusual signals that arise in theories where dark matter is asymmetric and carries a net antibaryon number, as may occur when the dark matter abundance is linked to the baryon abundance. Antibaryonic dark matter can…
We summarize our recent proposal of explaining the discrepancy between the bottle and beam measurements of the neutron lifetime through the existence of a dark sector, which the neutron can decay to with a branching fraction 1%. We show…
We investigate how our baryon-loss limits from anomalous binary-pulsar period lengthening can be interpreted microscopically to yield specific constraints on the particle physics of baryon number violation within a neutron star. We focus on…
We study the formation and properties of dark neutron stars in a scenario where dark matter is made up of (heavy) dark baryons in a sequestered copy of the MSSM. This scenario naturally explains the coincidence of baryonic and dark matter…
We entertain the novel possibility that long range forces may lead to violations of accidental symmetries, in particular baryon number. Employing an ultralight scalar, with a mass $\ll$ eV, we illustrate that this scenario can lead to…
A recent proposal suggests that experimental discrepancies on the lifetime of neutrons can be resolved if neutrons decay to dark matter. At the same time it has been demonstrated that such a decay mode would soften the nuclear equation of…
Inspired by the well known anomaly in the life time of the neutron, we investigate its consequences inside neutron stars. We first assess the viability of the neutron decay hypothesis suggested by Fornal and Grinstein within neutrons tars,…
We demonstrate that the observation of neutron stars with masses greater than one solar mass places severe demands on any exotic neutron decay mode that could explain the discrepancy between beam and bottle measurements of the neutron…
We consider a long-range force, mediated by an ultralight scalar, which can give rise to violation of baryon number. This would lead to very different lifetimes for nucleons in different astrophysical environments. Possible signals of this…
In this contribution I briefly review the dynamics of strange mesons and baryons with dense nuclear matter, paying a special attention to their presence in the inner core of neutron stars and the consequences for the structure of these…
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…
Neutron stars offer powerful astrophysical laboratories to probe the properties of dark matter. Gradual accumulation of heavy, non-annihilating dark matter in neutron stars can lead to the formation of comparable-mass black holes, and…
Baryon number conservation is not guaranteed by any fundamental symmetry within the Standard Model, and therefore has been a subject of experimental and theoretical scrutiny for decades. So far, no evidence for baryon number violation has…
The hypothesis that neutrons might decay into dark matter is explored using neutron stars as a testing ground. It is found that in order to obtain stars with masses at the upper end of those observed, the dark matter must experience a…
Dark sector particles at the GeV scale carrying baryon number provide an attractive framework for understanding the origin of dark matter and the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. We demonstrate that dark decays of hadronic…