It was pointed out recently that oscillation of the neutron $n$ into mirror neutron $n'$, a sterile twin of the neutron with exactly the same mass, could be a very fast process with the the baryon number violation, even faster than the neutron decay itself. This process is sensitive to the magnetic fields and it could be observed by comparing the neutron lose rates in the UCN storage chambers for different magnetic backgrounds. We calculate the probability of $n-n'$ oscillation in the case when a mirror magnetic field $\vec{B}'$ is non-zero and show that in this case it can be suppressed or resonantly enhanced by applying the ordinary magnetic field $\vec{B}$, depending on its strength and on its orientation with respect to $\vec{B}'$. The recent experimental data, under this hypothesis, still allow the $n-n'$ oscillation time order 1 s or even smaller. Moreover, they indicate that the neutron losses are sensitive to the orientation of the magnetic field. %at about $3σ$ level. If these hints will be confirmed in the future experiments, this would point to the presence of the mirror magnetic field on the Earth of the order of 0.1 G, or some equivalent spin-dependent force of the other origin that makes a difference between the neutron and mirror neutron states.
The possibility of neutron swapping between the ordinary and mirror sectors is today a subject of a great many theoretical and experimental studies. In this paper, we investigate the neutron-mirror neutron transitions in different environments from vacuum to neutron star. Our approach is based on the density matrix formalism, Lindblad and Bloch equations and the implication of the seesaw mechanism to the Hamiltonian diagonalization.
The process of neutron-mirror neutron oscillation, motivated by symmetric mirror dark matter models, is governed by two parameters: $n-n'$ mixing parameter $δ$ and $n-n'$ mass splitting $Δ$. For neutron mirror neutron oscillation to be observable, the splitting between their masses $Δ$ must be small and current experiments lead to $δ\leq 2\times 10^{-27}$ GeV and$Δ\leq 10^{-24}$ GeV. We show that in mirror universe models where this process is observable, this small mass splitting constrains the way that one must implement asymmetric inflation to satisfy the limits of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis …
The discrepancy between the neutron lifetimes measured in the beam and trap experiments can be explained via the neutron $n$ conversion into mirror neutron $n'$, its dark partner from parallel mirror sector, provided that $n$ and $n'$ have a tiny mass splitting order $10^{-7}$ eV. In large magnetic fields used in beam experiments $n-n'$ transition is resonantly enhanced and can transform of about a per cent fraction of neutrons into mirror neutrons which decay in invisible mode. Thus less protons will be produced and the measured value $τ_{\rm beam}$ appears larger than $β$-decay time $τ_β = τ…
In addition to being a solution to the little hierarchy problem, the Mirror Twin Higgs provides a natural setting for Asymmetric Dark Matter. In its incarnation with only one Higgs doublet and its mirror copy, dark matter would however almost certainly consist mostly of mirror atoms, which is severely ruled out by constraints on dark matter self-interactions. By adding a second Higgs doublet and its mirror, the vevs of the different Higgses can be arranged such that dark matter consists mostly of mirror neutrons, which is cosmologically viable. In this paper, it is shown that current constrain…
Mirror models lead to the possibility that neutron ($n$) can oscillate into its mirror partner ($n'$) inspiring several experimental searches for this phenomenon. The condition for observability of this oscillation is a high degree of degeneracy between the $n$ and $n'$ masses, which can be guaranteed if there is exact parity symmetry taking all particles to their mirror partners. However consistency of these models with big bang nucleosynthesis requires that this parity symmetry be broken in the early universe in a scenario called asymmetric inflation. In this paper we study the consistency o…
The mass loss in putative neutron star to mixed neutron - mirror neutron star transition implies a significant change of orbital period. The precise constancy of the latter can restrict scenarios recently suggested where neutron to mirror neutron mixing occurring in neutron stars, transforms them into mixed stars helping explain the narrow mass distribution observed for pulsars in binary systems. The observation of a very old millisecond pulsar with a mass of 2 solar masses is an additional strong constraint on the above transition.We also note that the observed gravitational waves signals fro…
Present probes do not exclude that the neutron ($n$) oscillation into mirror neutron ($n'$), a sterile state exactly degenerate in mass with the neutron, can be a very fast process, in fact faster than the neutron decay itself. This process is sensitive to the magnetic field. Namely, if the mirror magnetic field $\vec{B}'$ exists at the Earth, $n-n'$ oscillation probability can be suppressed or resonantly amplified by the applied magnetic field $\vec{B}$, depending on its strength and on the angle $β$ between $\vec{B}$ and $\vec{B}'$. We present the results of ultra-cold neutron storage measur…
Mirror sectors have been proposed to address the problems of dark matter, baryogenesis, and the neutron lifetime anomaly. In this work we study a new, powerful probe of mirror neutrons: neutron star temperatures. When neutrons in the neutron star core convert to mirror neutrons during collisions, the vacancies left behind in the nucleon Fermi seas are refilled by more energetic nucleons, releasing immense amounts of heat in the process. We derive a new constraint on the allowed strength of neutron--mirror-neutron mixing from observations of the coldest (sub-40,000 Kelvin) neutron star, PSR 214…
The manuscript by Berezhiani (arXiv:1812.11089) proposes a model that has the neutron decaying into a mirror neutron with a branching fraction of 1%, alleviating the tension between neutron lifetime measurements in beam vs bottle experiments. We show that the model as proposed is inconsistent with experiment. Variations of the model may work at the expense of extreme breaking of the $Z_2$ symmetry between the Standard Model and its mirror copy.
Based on a newly proposed mirror-matter model of neutron-mirror neutron ($n-n'$) oscillations, the puzzles related to ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are explained. In particular, the phenomena around the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin (GZK) cutoff for UHECRs can be well understood under the new mirror matter model assuming a mirror-to-ordinary temperature ratio of $T'/T \sim 0.3$. The suppression factor of the GZK effect due to the opacity of cosmic microwave background is calculated and agrees with the observations well. Most of the super-GZK events (i.e., above the GZK cutoff), as predicted …
We address a method of limiting neutron-mirror neutron mixing ($ε_{nn'}$) by analyzing its effect on neutron star (NS) heating. This method employs observational bounds on the surface temperature of NSs to constrain $ε_{nn'}$. It has been suggested that the bound obtained this way is so stringent that it would exclude any discovery of $n-n'$ oscillation in the currently planned terrestrial experiments at various laboratories. This conclusion motivated us to critically analyze this suggestion in more detail. In this note, we point out a very interesting new effect present in nearly exact mirror…
The oscillation of the neutron $n$ into mirror neutron $n'$, its partner from dark mirror sector, can gradually transform an ordinary neutron star into a mixed star consisting in part of mirror dark matter. The implications of the reverse process taking place in the mirror neutron stars depend on the sign of baryon asymmetry in mirror sector. Namely, if it is negative, as predicted by certain baryogenesis scenarios, then $\bar{n}'-\bar{n}$ transitions create a core of our antimatter gravitationally trapped in the mirror star interior. The annihilation of accreted gas on such antimatter cores c…
It was pointed out in a recent paper that the observed cooling rate of old, cold neutron stars (NS) can provide an upper limit on the transition rate of neutron to mirror neutron ($n-n'$). This limit is so stringent that it would preclude any discovery of $n \to n'$ oscillation in the current round of terrestrial searches for the process. Motivated by this crucially important conclusion, we critically analyze this suggestion and note an interesting new effect present in nearly exact mirror models for $n \to n'$ oscillation, which significantly affect this bound. The new element is the $β$ deca…
The oscillation of neutrons $n$ into mirror neutrons $n'$, their mass degenerate partners from dark mirror sector, can have interesting implications for neutron stars: an ordinary neutron star could gradually transform into a mixed star consisting in part of mirror dark matter. Mixed stars can be detectable as twin partners of ordinary neutron stars: namely, there can exist compact stars with the same masses but having different radii. For a given equation of state (identical between the ordinary and mirror components), the mass and radius of a mixed star depend on the proportion between the o…
We inspect the possibility that neutron star interiors are a mixture of ordinary matter and mirror dark matter. This is a scenario that can be naturally envisaged according to well studied accretion mechanisms, including the Bondi-Hoyle one. We show that the inclusion of mirror dark matter in neutron star models lowers the maximum neutron star mass for a given equation of state, and that it decreases the tidal deformability of a given neutron star. These general features imply that, given an equation of state, one can constrain the maximum viable amount of mirror dark matter in neutron stars i…
The possibility that a neutron can be transformed to a hidden sector particle remains intriguingly open. Proposed theoretical models conjecture that the hidden sector can be represented by a mirror sector, and the neutron n can oscillate into its sterile mirror twin n', exactly or nearly degenerate in mass with n. Oscillations n - n' can take place in vacuum and in the environment of the regular matter and the magnetic field where only neutron will be subject of interaction with the environment. We describe the propagation of the oscillating n - n' system as a particle of the cold neutron beam…
An analysis is made of the role played by the gas environment in neutron-mirror-neutron and neutron-antineutron oscillations. In the first process the interaction with the ambient medium induces a refraction energy shift which plays the role of an extra magnetic field. In the second process antineutron annihilation in practice might lead to strong decoherence, which should be taken into account in experiments with free neutrons looking for the neutron to antineutron transformation.
We study the systematic decomposition of the dimension nine neutron-antineutron oscillation operators at tree and one-loop levels. We discuss the topologies' generation and the assignment of the chiral quarks. The completed lists of the decompositions are provided. We furthermore show an example that the neutron-antineutron oscillation occurs at one-loop level, with the tiny neutrino mass being generated via the scotogenic model and proton decay being evaded.
We point out that if neutron--antineutron oscillation is observed in a free neutron oscillation experiment, it will put an upper limit on the strengths of Lorentz invariance violating (LIV) mass operators for neutrons at the level of $10^{-23}$ GeV or so, which would be the most stringent LIV limit for neutrons. We also study constraints on $ΔB=2$ LIV operators and find that for one particular operator degaussing is not necessary to obtain a visible signal. We also note that observation of $n-\bar{n}$ oscillation signal in the nucleon decay search experiment involving nuclei does not lead to a…
Transformation of neutron to antineutron is a small effect that has not yet been experimentally observed. %\cite{Phillips:2014fgb}. In principle, it can occur with free neutrons in the vacuum or with bound neutrons inside the nuclear environment different for neutrons and antineutrons and for that reason in the latter case it is heavily suppressed. Free neutron transformation also can be suppressed if environmental vector field exists destinguishing neutron from antineutron. We consider here the case of a vector field coupled to $B-L$ charge of the particles ($B-L$ photons) and study a possibi…
It has been proposed that there could be a mirror copy of the standard model particles, restoring the parity symmetry in the weak interaction on the global level. Oscillations between a neutral standard model particle, such as the neutron, and its mirror counterpart could potentially answer various standing issues in physics today. Astrophysical studies and terrestrial experiments led by ultracold neutron storage measurements have investigated neutron to mirror-neutron oscillations and imposed constraints on the theoretical parameters. Recently, further analysis of these ultracold neutron stor…
Quantum interferometric probe of neutron--hidden neutron oscillations
Università di Salerno（萨莱诺大学）；INFN – Gruppo Collegato di Salerno（意大利国家核物理研究所萨莱诺协作组）；University of Camerino（卡梅里诺大学）；Technical University of Munich（慕尼黑工业大学）
The scotogenic mechanism for radiative neutrino mass is generalized to include neutron-antineutron oscillation as well as proton decay. Dark matter is stabilized by extending the notion of lepton parity to matter parity. Leptogenesis is also a possible byproduct. This framework unifies the description of all these important, but seemingly unrelated, topics in physics beyond the standard model of particle interactions.
We propose a new scenario for predicting a one-loop neutron-antineutron oscillation at a testable level, meanwhile, realizing a thermal or inflationary baryogenesis at a very high scale. Besides the standard model content, this scenario involves two real singlet scalars with very heavy masses, two color-triplet and iso-singlet scalars at the TeV scale, as well as a Majorana singlet fermion for a dark matter candidate.
The neutron, besides its $β$-decay $n\to p e\barν_e$, might have a new decay channel $n\to n' X$ into mirror neutron $n'$, its nearly mass degenerate twin from parallel dark sector, and a massless boson $X$ which can be ordinary and mirror photons or some more exotic particle. Such an invisible decay could alleviate the tension between the neutron lifetimes measured in the beam and trap experiments. I discuss some phenomenological and astrophysical consequences of this scenario, which depends on the mass range of mirror neutron $n'$. Namely, the case $m_{n'} < m_p + m_e$ leads to a striking po…
Given the lack of empirical evidence of weakly interacting dark matter, it is reasonable to look to other candidates such as a confining dark sector with a similar number of particles as the standard model. Twin Higgs mirror matter is one such model that is a twin of the standard model with particles masses 3--6 times heavier than the standard model that solves the hierarchy problem. This generically predicts mirror neutron stars, degenerate objects made entirely of mirror nuclear matter. We find their structure using a realistic equation of state from crust (nuclei) to core (relativistic mean…
Existing bounds on the neutron-antineutron mass mixing, $ε_{n\bar n} < {\rm few} \times 10^{-24}$ eV, impose a severe upper limit on $n - \bar n$ transition probability, $P_{n\bar n}(t) < (t/0.1 ~{\rm s})^2 \times 10^{-18}$ or so, where $t$ is the neutron flight time. Here we propose a new mechanism of $n- \bar n$ transition which is not induced by direct mass mixing $ε_{n\bar n}$ but is mediated instead by the neutron mixings with the hypothetical states of mirror neutron $n'$ and mirror antineutron $\bar{n}'$. The latter can be as large as $ε_{nn'}, ε_{n\bar{n}'} \sim 10^{-15}$ eV or so, wit…
The values of the antineutron-nucleus scattering lengths, and in particular their imaginary parts, are needed to evaluate the feasibility of using neutron mirrors in laboratory experiments to search for neutron-antineutron oscillations. We analyze existing experimental and theoretical constraints on these values with emphasis on low $A$ nuclei and use the results to suggest materials for the neutron/antineutron guide and to evaluate the systematic uncertainties in estimating the neutron-antineutron oscillation time. As an example we discuss a scenario for a future neutron-antineutron oscillati…
We suggest that the major fraction of binary mergers, which might provide gravitational wave signal detectable by LIGO/Virgo, emerged from the hidden mirror sector. Mirror particles do not interact with an ordinary observer except gravitationally, which is the reason why no electromagnetic signals accompanying gravitational waves from mergers with components composed of mirror matter are expected. Therefore, if the dark matter budget of the universe is mostly contributed by the mirror particles, we predict that only about one binary neutron star (neutron star - black hole) merger out of ten, o…
An observation of neutron-antineutron oscillations ($ n-\bar{n}$), which violate both $B$ and $B-L$ conservation, would constitute a scientific discovery of fundamental importance to physics and cosmology. A stringent upper bound on its transition rate would make an important contribution to our understanding of the baryon asymmetry of the universe by eliminating the post-sphaleron baryogenesis scenario in the light quark sector. We show that one can design an experiment using slow neutrons that in principle can reach the required sensitivity of $τ_{n-\bar{n}}\sim 10^{10}s$ in the oscillation …
