Inclusive Nucleon and Dinucleon Decay Searches with Neutrino Telescopes with Stephan Meighen-Berger

Neutrino telescopes instrument megatons to gigatons of water and ice, but they are not expected to be sensitive to nucleon decay, because their optical modules are tens of meters apart.  We show that a decay within a few meters of a module with many photomultipliers produces a flash on that module that radioactive decays in seawater cannot mimic.  Such a decay can be detected without reconstructing its final state, which enables inclusive searches that are valid for any final state that produces enough light. We show that ORCA and IceCube-Gen2 have the potential to reach inclusive limits near 10^33 yr in ten years.  For dinucleon decay into pions, these are comparable to the present exclusive limits.  Realizing this potential requires dedicated but realistic efforts on muon vetoes, nuclear effects, and optical modeling.

This lecture was made possible by the William C. Ferguson Fund.