Speaker
Description
We explore baryon number violating interactions (BNV) using a simple model involving a charged iso-singlet, color-triplet scalar and a Majorana fermion with interactions in the quark sector. This model has been useful for explaining baryogenesis and the DM-baryon coincidence puzzle. We revisit this model, with chiral perturbation theory as a guide, at the level of baryons and mesons in the dense environments of neutron stars and binary pulsar systems. BNV neutron decays become accessible in this environment where in vacuum they would be kinematically forbidden. By considering several equations of state in binary pulsar candidates, we establish strong constraints on the model parameter space from these decays, and the subsequent scattering of the Majorana fermions, in total amounting to a $\Delta B = 2$ loss in the star. These limits are highly complementary to a number of terrestrial probes, from $n-\bar{n}$ oscillations and di-proton decay to collider searches. Lastly, we suggest a new DM direct detection channel.
