A novel proton decay signature at DUNE, JUNO, and Hyper-K

A bstract Proton decay, although unobserved so far, is a natural expectation when attempting to explain the baryon asymmetry of the universe. p K^+ p → K + ν ¯ or p K^+ {}₁⁰ p → K + χ ~ 1 0, with {}₁⁰ χ ~ 1 0 a light exotic neutral particle, represent possible decay channels achievable in models of physics beyond the Standard Model, such as the MSSM with trilinear R-parity-violating terms, or the Standard Model extended by a heavy neutral lepton. Among the decay products of these modes, the neutral fermions would typically appear as missing energy in collider searches. The present study considers how such decay modes could be differentiated in experimental settings, as the exotic {}₁⁰ χ ~ 1 0 may further decay if it is not protected by a symmetry (such as R-parity in the MSSM). We assess the detection prospects of the proposed experiments DUNE, JUNO and Hyper-K in this context.