Neutron disappearance inside the nucleus

Abstract

We consider the possibility that a neutron may disappear inside the nucleus, which will demonstrate the existence of baryon violating $\Delta B=1$ interactions. It has recently been proposed that such a process may have an effect on the free neutron decay life time. We evaluate the widths for $n\rightarrow \chi$ and $n\rightarrow \chi \gamma$, with $\chi$ being a light dark matter particle emitted by a loosely bound neutron in various light nuclei. We find that, assuming a mass $m_{\chi}$ close to 938 MeV, the obtained width for $n\rightarrow \chi$ in $^{11}$Be is much larger than the corresponding beta decay width. This suggests a severe limit on the possible decay channel of $n \rightarrow \chi \gamma $ for free neutron.