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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Chiral perturbation theory for baryon-number-violating nucleon decay into a vector meson

Yi Liao*, Xiao-Dong Ma†, and Hao-Lin Wang‡

  • State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Institute of Quantum Matter, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China and Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nuclear Science, Guangzhou 510006, China

  • *Contact author: liaoy@m.scnu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: maxid@scnu.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: whaolin@m.scnu.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. D 112, L031704 – Published 28 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fzq9-tfcp

Abstract

In a recent work [New chiral structures for baryon number violating nucleon decays, arXiv:2504.14855.] we identified generic baryon-number-violating (BNV) structures containing triple light quarks and achieved their leading-order chiral realizations involving octet pseudoscalars and baryons. Although many two-body nucleon decays into a vector meson have been experimentally searched for and stringently constrained, a consistent theoretical framework for their calculation is still lacking. In this Letter, we fill the gap by implementing chiral matching of all these triple-quark interactions onto hadronic interactions involving octet vector mesons, baryons, and pseudoscalars. This paves the way for a consistent and comprehensive study of all relevant BNV processes. As an illustration of application, we show how degeneracy in the parameter space of Wilson coefficients can be broken by synthesizing experimental constraints on nucleon decays into a vector or pseudoscalar meson when relevant hadronic low-energy constants can be reasonably determined.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, L031704– Published 28 August, 2025
  • Received 14 June 2025
  • Accepted 11 August 2025
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