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How long does the hydrogen atom live?

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arxiv 2003.02270 v1 pith:WXRKKKQE submitted 2020-03-04 hep-ph hep-exnucl-exnucl-th

How long does the hydrogen atom live?

classification hep-ph hep-exnucl-exnucl-th
keywords hydrogendecaymodelsprotonatomicbaryonenoughlifetime
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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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.

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  1. Minimal Proton-Mass Dark Matter

    hep-ph 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    A minimal dark matter model with one complex scalar carrying B and L numbers, stabilized by proton stability, with mass near the proton mass and relic density from UV freeze-in.