Neutron-antineutron Oscillation and Baryonic Majoron: Low Scale Spontaneous Baryon Violation

Abstract

We discuss a possibility that baryon number $B$ is spontaneously broken at low scales, of the order of MeV or even smaller, so that the neutron-antineutron oscillation can be induced at the experimentally accessible level. An associated Goldstone particle, baryonic majoron, can have observable effects in neutron to antineutron transitions in nuclei or dense nuclear matter. By extending baryon number to $B-L$ symmetry, baryo-majoron can be identified with the ordinary majoron associated with the spontaneous breaking of lepton number, with interesting implications for neutrinoless $2\beta$ becay with the majoron emission, etc. We also discuss a hypothesis suggesting that baryon number maybe spontaneously broken by the QCD itself via the six-quark condensates.