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Search for nucleon decay into charged antilepton plus meson in $0.316 megaton \cdot years$ exposure of the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov detector

K. Abe^1,38, C. Bronner¹, G. Pronost¹, Y. Hayato^1,38, M. Ikeda¹, K. Iyogi¹, J. Kameda^1,38, Y. Kato¹, Y. Kishimoto^1,38 et al. (The Super-Kamiokande Collaboration)

Y. Kishimoto^1,38, Ll. Marti¹, M. Miura^1,38, S. Moriyama^1,38, M. Nakahata^1,38, Y. Nakano¹, S. Nakayama^1,38, Y. Okajima¹, A. Orii¹, H. Sekiya^1,38, M. Shiozawa^1,38, Y. Sonoda¹, A. Takeda^1,38, A. Takenaka¹, H. Tanaka¹, S. Tasaka¹, T. Tomura^1,38, R. Akutsu², T. Kajita^2,38, K. Kaneyuki^2,38,*, Y. Nishimura², K. Okumura^2,38, K. M. Tsui², L. Labarga³, P. Fernandez³, F. d. M. Blaszczyk⁴, J. Gustafson⁴, C. Kachulis⁴, E. Kearns^4,38, J. L. Raaf⁴, J. L. Stone^4,38, L. R. Sulak⁴, S. Berkman⁵, S. Tobayama⁵, M. Goldhaber^6,*, M. Elnimr⁷, W. R. Kropp⁷, S. Mine⁷, S. Locke⁷, P. Weatherly⁷, M. B. Smy^7,38, H. W. Sobel^7,38, V. Takhistov^7,†, K. S. Ganezer⁸, J. Hill⁸, J. Y. Kim⁹, I. T. Lim⁹, R. G. Park⁹, A. Himmel¹⁰, Z. Li¹⁰, E. O’Sullivan¹⁰, K. Scholberg^10,38, C. W. Walter^10,38, T. Ishizuka¹¹, T. Nakamura¹², J. S. Jang¹³, K. Choi¹⁴, J. G. Learned¹⁴, S. Matsuno¹⁴, S. N. Smith¹⁴, J. Amey¹⁵, R. P. Litchfield¹⁵, W. Y. Ma¹⁵, Y. Uchida¹⁵, M. O. Wascko¹⁵, S. Cao¹⁶, M. Friend¹⁶, T. Hasegawa¹⁶, T. Ishida¹⁶, T. Ishii¹⁶, T. Kobayashi¹⁶, T. Nakadaira¹⁶, K. Nakamura^16,38, Y. Oyama¹⁶, K. Sakashita¹⁶, T. Sekiguchi¹⁶, T. Tsukamoto¹⁶, KE. Abe¹⁷, M. Hasegawa¹⁷, A. T. Suzuki¹⁷, Y. Takeuchi^17,38, T. Yano¹⁷, T. Hayashino¹⁸, T. Hiraki¹⁸, S. Hirota¹⁸, K. Huang¹⁸, M. Jiang¹⁸, KE. Nakamura¹⁸, T. Nakaya^18,38, B. Quilain¹⁸, N. D. Patel¹⁸, R. A. Wendell^18,38, L. H. V. Anthony¹⁹, N. McCauley¹⁹, A. Pritchard¹⁹, Y. Fukuda²⁰, Y. Itow^21,22, M. Murase²¹, F. Muto²¹, P. Mijakowski²³, K. Frankiewicz²³, C. K. Jung²⁴, X. Li²⁴, J. L. Palomino²⁴, G. Santucci²⁴, C. Vilela²⁴, M. J. Wilking²⁴, C. Yanagisawa^24,‡, S. Ito²⁵, D. Fukuda²⁵, H. Ishino²⁵, A. Kibayashi²⁵, Y. Koshio^25,38, H. Nagata²⁵, M. Sakuda²⁵, C. Xu²⁵, Y. Kuno²⁶, D. Wark^27,33, F. Di Lodovico²⁸, B. Richards²⁸, R. Tacik^29,40, S. B. Kim³⁰, A. Cole³¹, L. Thompson³¹, H. Okazawa³², Y. Choi³⁴, K. Ito³⁵, K. Nishijima³⁵, M. Koshiba³⁶, Y. Totsuka^36,*, Y. Suda³⁷, M. Yokoyama^37,38, R. G. Calland³⁸, M. Hartz³⁸, K. Martens³⁸, C. Shimpson^38,27, Y. Suzuki³⁸, M. R. Vagins^38,7, J. F. Martin³⁹, C. M. Nantais³⁹, H. A. Tanaka³⁹, A. Konaka⁴⁰, S. Chen⁴¹, L. Wan⁴¹, Y. Zhang⁴¹, A. Minamino⁴², and R. J. Wilkes⁴³ (The Super-Kamiokande Collaboration)

¹Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kamioka, Gifu 506-1205, Japan
²Research Center for Cosmic Neutrinos, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8582, Japan
³Department of Theoretical Physics, University Autonoma Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
⁴Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z4, Canada
⁶Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA
⁷Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-4575, USA
⁸Department of Physics, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA 90747, USA
⁹Department of Physics, Chonnam National University, Kwangju 500-757, Korea
¹⁰Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham NC 27708, USA
¹¹Junior College, Fukuoka Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Fukuoka 811-0295, Japan
¹²Department of Physics, Gifu University, Gifu, Gifu 501-1193, Japan
¹³GIST College, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 500-712, Korea
¹⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
¹⁵Department of Physics, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
¹⁶High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
¹⁷Department of Physics, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan
¹⁸Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan
¹⁹Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZE, United Kingdom
²⁰Department of Physics, Miyagi University of Education, Sendai, Miyagi 980-0845, Japan
²¹Institute for Space-Earth Enviromental Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan
²²Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan
²³National Centre For Nuclear Research, 00-681 Warsaw, Poland
²⁴Department of Physics and Astronomy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800, USA
²⁵Department of Physics, Okayama University, Okayama, Okayama 700-8530, Japan
²⁶Department of Physics, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan
²⁷Department of Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, OX1 3PU, United Kingdom
²⁸School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 4NS, United Kingdom
²⁹Department of Physics, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK, S4SOA2, Canada
³⁰Department of Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
³¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, Sheffield, United Kingdom
³²Department of Informatics in Social Welfare, Shizuoka University of Welfare, Yaizu, Shizuoka, 425-8611, Japan
³³STFC, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, and Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
³⁴Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Korea
³⁵Department of Physics, Tokai University, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa 259-1292, Japan
³⁶The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
³⁷Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
³⁸Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), The University of Tokyo Institutes for Advanced Study, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
³⁹Department of Physics, University of Toronto, ON, M5S 1A7, Canada
⁴⁰TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T2A3, Canada
⁴¹Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China
⁴²Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, 240-8501, Japan
⁴³Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1560, USA

^*Deceased.
^†Also at Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, CA 90095-1547, USA.
^‡Also at BMCC/CUNY, Science Department, New York, New York, USA.

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Phys. Rev. D 96, 012003 – Published 24 July, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.012003

Abstract

We have searched for proton decays into a charged antilepton ( $e^{+}$ , $μ^{+}$ ) plus a meson ( $η$ , $ρ^{0}$ , $ω$ ) and for neutron decays into a charged antilepton ( $e^{+}$ , $μ^{+}$ ) plus a meson ( $π^{-}$ , $ρ^{-}$ ) using Super-Kamiokande I-IV data, corresponding to $0.316 megaton \cdot years$ of exposure. This measurement updates the previous published result by using 2.26 times more data and improved analysis methods. No significant evidence for nucleon decay is observed and lower limits on the partial lifetime of the nucleon are obtained. The limits range from $3 \times 10^{31}$ to $1 \times 10^{34} years$ at 90% confidence level, depending on the decay mode.

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References (29)

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Search for nucleon decay into charged antilepton plus meson in $0.316 megaton \cdot years$ exposure of the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov detector

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Search for nucleon decay into charged antilepton plus meson in 0.316 megaton·years exposure of the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov detector

Abstract

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (29)

Search for nucleon decay into charged antilepton plus meson in $0.316 megaton \cdot years$ exposure of the Super-Kamiokande water Cherenkov detector