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How long does the hydrogen atom live?
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abstract
It is possible that the proton is stable while atomic hydrogen is not. This is the case in models with new particles carrying baryon number which are light enough to be stable themselves but heavy enough so that proton decay is kinematically blocked. Models of new physics that explain the neutron lifetime anomaly generically have this feature, allowing for atomic hydrogen to decay through electron capture on a proton. We calculate the radiative hydrogen decay rate involving the emission of a few hundred keV photon, which makes this process detectable in experiment. In particular, we show that the low energy part of the Borexino spectrum is sensitive to radiative hydrogen decay, and turn this into a limit on the hydrogen lifetime of order $10^{30}~\rm s$ or stronger. For models where the neutron mixes with a dark baryon, $\chi$, this limits the mixing angle to roughly $10^{-11}$, restricting the $n\to\chi\gamma$ branching to $10^{-4}$, over a wide range of parameter space.
Forward citations
Cited by 2 Pith papers
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Baryon number violating hydrogen decay
Baryon-number-violating hydrogen decays into photons, leptons, or mesons all have lower bounds on their inverse partial widths exceeding 10^44 years.
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Nucleon Decays into Light New Particles in Neutrino Detectors
Nucleon decays into light new particles can hide from water-Cherenkov detectors when the charged partner is slow, while Earth-born fluxes of the decay products could be visible in existing underground detectors.
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