Baryon Number Violation in Particle Decays

Abstract

It has been argued in the past that in baryogenesis via out-of-equilibrium decays one must consider loop diagrams that contain more than one baryon number violating coupling. In this note we argue that the requirement with regard to baryon number violating couplings in loop diagrams is that the interaction between the intermediate on-shell particles and the final particles should correspond to a net change in baryon number and that this can be satisfied even if the loop diagram contains only one baryon number violating coupling. Put simply, we show that to create a baryon asymmetry there should be net B violation to the right of the `cut' in the loop diagram. This is of relevance to some earlier works involving the out-of-equilibrium decay scenario.