Published October 1998 | Version v1
Journal article

Search for Proton Decay via p → e+π0 in a Large Water Cherenkov Detector

  • 1. Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Tanashi, Tokyo 188-8502 (Japan)
  • 2. Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215 (United States)
  • 3. Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973 (United States)
  • 4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California---Irvine, Irvine, California 92697-4575 (United States)
  • 5. Department of Physics, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, California 90747 (United States)
  • 6. Department of Physics, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030 (United States)
  • 7. Department of Physics, Gifu University, Gifu, Gifu 501-1193 (Japan)
  • 8. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 (United States)
  • 9. Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801 (Japan)
  • 10. Department of Physics, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501 (Japan)
  • 11. Physics Division, P-23, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544 (United States)

Description

We have searched for proton decay via p→e+π0 using data from a 25.5 kton·yr exposure of the Super-Kamiokande detector. We find no candidate events with an expected background induced by atmospheric neutrinos of 0.1 events. From these data, we set a lower limit on the partial lifetime of the proton τ/Bp→e+π0 to be 1.6x1033 years at a 90% confidence level. copyright 1998 The American Physical Society

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
81
Journal Issue
16
Journal Page Range
p. 3319-3323
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO