How Macroscopic Limits on Neutron Star Baryon Loss Yield Microscopic Limits on Non-Standard-Model Baryon Decay

Understand

We investigate how our baryon-loss limits from anomalous binary-pulsar period lengthening can be interpreted microscopically to yield specific constraints on the particle physics of baryon number violation within a neutron star.

• We focus on the possibility of anomalous baryon disappearance via dark baryon processes and on scenarios in which the produced dark-sector particles do not survive to influence the response of the star to baryon-number-violating effects.
• We flesh out the conditions for which this may occur, as well as other key assumptions.
• We then turn to the analysis of particle processes in the dense nuclear medium found at the core of a neutron star, employing the techniques of relativistic mean-field theory.