Dark Matter Induced Nucleon Decay: Model and Signatures

Abstract

If dark matter (DM) carries anti-baryon number, a DM particle may annihilate with a nucleon by flipping to anti-DM. Inspired by Hylogenesis models, we introduce a single component DM model where DM is asymmetric and carries B and L as -1/2. It can annihilate with a nucleon to an anti-lepton and an anti-DM at leading order or with an additional meson at sub-leading order. Such signals may be observed in proton decay experiments. If DM is captured in the Sun, the DM induced nucleon decay can generate a large flux of anti-neutrinos, which could be observed in neutrino experiments. Furthermore, the anti-DM particle in the final state obtains a relatively large momentum (few hundred MeV), and escapes the Sun. These fast-moving anti-DM particles could also induce interesting signals in various underground experiments.