Baryon-number violation by two units and the deuteron lifetime

Understand

We calculate the lifetime of the deuteron with dimension-nine quark operators that violate baryon number by two units.

• We construct an effective field theory for $|\Delta B|=2$ interactions that give rise to neutron-antineutron ($n$-$\bar{n}$) oscillations and dinucleon decay within a consistent power counting.
• We calculate the ratio of the deuteron lifetime to the square of the $n$-$\bar{n}$ oscillation time up to next-to-leading order.
• Our result, which is analytical and has a quantified uncertainty, is smaller by a factor $\simeq 2.5$ than earlier estimates based on nuclear models, which impacts the indirect bound on he $n$-$\bar{n}$ oscillation time and future experiments.