【06.17】Seminar--Probing baryon number violation by one unit and lepton number violation by three units at the LHC
Seminar
Title: Probing baryon number violation by one unit and lepton number violation by three units at the LHC
Speaker: Dr. Amit Bhoonah (Colorado State University and the University of Pittsburgh)
Host: Prof. Zhewei Yin (Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS)
Time: June 17, 2026 (Wednesday), 15:00pm Beijing Time
Location: Meeting Room 319, Library Building
Abstract:
Proton decay experiments typically constrain baryon number violation to the scale of Grand Unified Theories. From a phenomenological point of view, this makes direct probing of the associated new resonances impossible. It has, however, been known that certain specific patterns of baryon and lepton number violation can suppress proton decay by multiple powers of the masses of the heavy resonances involved, opening the possibility that the observed limits on the proton lifetime are consistent with baryon number violating physics at energy scales much lower than that of grand unification. In this talk, I will show that theories which violate baryon number by one unit, ΔB=−1, and lepton number by three units, ΔL=−3, despite stringent limits on the predicted p→ e+/μ+ν ν mode from the Super-Kamiokande experiment, are consistent with BNV at the TeV scale. Using a representative model, I will also show that realistic proton lifetimes for ΔB=−1 and ΔL=−3 are some 10 orders of magnitude beyond upcoming proton decay experiments like Hyper-Kamiokande. However, ΔB=−1 and ΔL=−3 theories offer unique signatures of baryon number violation that can be probed both with currently available LHC data and with the upcoming High-Luminosity LHC, making the LHC a much more powerful probe of this particular pattern of B and L violation compared to proton decay experiments.
About the speaker:
Dr. Amit Bhoonah did his PhD at Queen's University where most of his research focused on astrophysical probes of dark matter, particularly galactic center gas clouds. He was then a postdoctoral fellow at the Colorado State University and the University of Pittsburgh where his work has focused on using high precision atomic spectroscopy for dark matter detection, neutrino mass model building and low scale baryon and lepton number violation.
