The Search for Proton Decay at Superkamiokande质子衰变的superkamiokande搜索.pptVIP

The Search for Proton Decay at Super-Kamiokande ASTR-007 Theodore Liu Proton Decay overview Protons not infinitely stable, as once thought Required for grand unification theories Binds the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces into one single force Existed about 10-40 seconds after Big Bang, with a temperature of around 1027 K Proton Decay specifics If grand unification occurs, quarks would be able to transform into leptons through the exchange of a supermassive particle dubbed the X boson. This process requires that protons decay to form the quarks, something generally not allowed by the Standard Model. Search for Proton Decay Proton decay would have to occur over extremely long time scales, or else the matter of the universe would not hold together. Experiments to detect proton decay can only establish a lower limit for a proton’s half-life. Search Methods specifics A proton typically decays into a positron and a neutral pion. Positron annihilates with an electron. Pion almost immediately decays into two photons in the gamma range. If the reaction is in water, the radiation released is known as Cerenkov radiation and can be detected. Cerenkov Radiation When a particle moving faster than the speed of light in water enters water, it slows down to adjust to the local speed of light of the new medium. This produces a cone of light analogous to how a supersonic jet will produce a sonic boom. Super-Kamiokande Massive neutrino observatory situated insided an active zinc mine in Mount Ikenoyama, Japan Contains 50,000 tons of ultrapure water, lined with more than 11,000 photomultiplier tubes to detect Cerenkov radiation Super-Kamiokande findings No detected proton decay yet since observations began in 1996 Does not mean that proton decay is not possible, simply that the lower bound is in the range of 1035 years Works Cited /HBASE/particles/neutrino2.html#c1 /~superk/pdk.html /wiki/Proton_decay Halcomb Hawley * * Cerenkov radiation giving off its characteristic blue