JUNO sensitivity on proton decay p → ν K <sup>+</sup> searches*
A. C. Abusleme Hoffman, Thomas Adam, S. Ahmad, Rizwan Ahmed, S. Aiello, M. Akram, Fengpeng 丰鹏 An 安, Qi 琪 An 安, Giuseppe Andronico, Н. Анфимов, V. Antonelli, Tatiana Antoshkina, Burin Asavapibhop, J. P. A. M. de André, Didier Auguste, Nikita Balashov, W. Baldini, Andrea Barresi, D. Basilico, E. Baussan, M. Bellato, Antonio Bergnoli, Thilo Birkenfeld, Sylvie Blin, David Blum, S.C. Blyth, Anastasia Bolshakova, M. Bongrand, Clément Bordereau, D. Breton, A. Brigatti, R. Brugnera, Riccardo Bruno, A. Budano, Mario Buscemi, José Busto, Ilya Butorov, J. Busenitz, Barbara Caccianiga, Hao 浩 Cai 蔡, Xiao 啸 Cai 蔡, Yanke Cai, Zhiyan 志岩 Cai 蔡, Riccardo Callegari, Antonio Cammi, Agustín Campeny, Chuanya Cao, Guofu 国富 Cao 曹, Jun 俊 Cao 曹, R. Caruso, C. Cerna, Jinfan 劲帆 Chang 常, Yun Chang, Pingping 平平 Chen 陈, Po-An Chen, Shaomin 少敏 Chen 陈, Xurong 旭荣 Chen 陈, Yiwen Chen, Yixue 义学 Chen 陈, Yu 羽 Chen 陈, Zhang 长 Chen 陈, Jie 捷 Cheng 程, Yaping 雅苹 Cheng 程, Alexey Chetverikov, D. Chiesa, P. Chimenti, A. Chukanov, Gérard Claverie, Catia Clementi, Barbara Clerbaux, Selma Conforti Di Lorenzo, Daniele Corti, F. Dal Corso, Olivia Dalager, C. De La Taille, Zhi 智 Deng 邓, Ziyan 子艳 Deng 邓, Wilfried Depnering, M. Fernández Díaz, Xuefeng Ding, Yayun 雅韵 Ding 丁, Bayu Dirgantara, Sergey Dmitrievsky, Tadeáš Dohnal, Dmitry Dolzhikov, Georgy Donchenko, Jianmeng 建蒙 Dong 董, E. Doroshkevich, M. Dracos, Frédéric Druillole, Ran 然 Du 杜, Shuxian 书先 Du 杜, S. Dusini, Martin Dvořák, T. Enqvist, Heike Enzmann, Andrea Fabbri, Ulrike Fahrendholz, Donghua Fan, Lei 磊 Fan 樊
Abstract
Abstract The Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is a large liquid scintillator detector designed to explore many topics in fundamental physics. In this study, the potential of searching for proton decay in the mode with JUNO is investigated. The kaon and its decay particles feature a clear three-fold coincidence signature that results in a high efficiency for identification. Moreover, the excellent energy resolution of JUNO permits suppression of the sizable background caused by other delayed signals. Based on these advantages, the detection efficiency for the proton decay via is 36.9% ± 4.9% with a background level of events after 10 years of data collection. The estimated sensitivity based on 200 kton-years of exposure is years, which is competitive with the current best limits on the proton lifetime in this channel and complements the use of different detection technologies.