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Jul 22 – 26, 2024
Europe/Lisbon timezone

Neutron decay anomaly, dark matter and neutron stars

Jul 22, 2024, 11:40 AM
20m
Auditorium C.1

Auditorium C.1

Department of Physics (University of Coimbra)

Speaker

Mar Bastero Gil (University of Granada)

Description

The discrepancies in measurements of the lifetime of the neutrons could be resolved considering an extra neutron decay channel into dark matter, with a branching ratio of the order of O(1%). Although the decay channel into a dark fermion $\chi$ plus visible matter has been already experimentally excluded, a dark decay into a dark matter fermion plus either a scalar or dark photon remains still a possibility. In particular, a model with a fermion mass $m_\chi\approx 1$ GeV and a scalar $m_\phi \approx 1-2$ MeV could provide not only the required branching ratio to explain the anomaly but also a good dark matter candidate with the right thermal abundance today, and being consistent with neutron stars physics.

Primary author

Mar Bastero Gil (University of Granada)

Presentation materials