Can protons decay?

Fermilab February 15, 2023
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Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is the premier particle physics lab in the United States. Founded as the National Accelerator Laboratory in 1967, it was renamed after physicist Enrico Fermi in 1974. Since its inception, Fermilab has been a world leader in particle physics, with discoveries including the bottom quark, top quark and tau neutrino, three of the elementary particles that make up our universe. Fermilab is home to approximately 1,700 scientists, engineers, technicians and support staff, and hosts about 2,500 visiting scientists from around the world. The laboratory is managed by the Fermi Forward Discovery Group for the U.S. Department of Energy. More information can be found at www.fnal.gov.

Video Description

The standard model is the best theory ever devised and it describes most of the data taken in the quantum realm. The standard model predicts that protons are stable. But what if the standard model is wrong? Could protons decay? In this video, Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln talks about why we think protons are stable and how we could be wrong. What is the DUNE experiment?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2os1rfVXRCM DUNE general public science website: https://lbnf-dune.fnal.gov DUNE technical documents: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1250799 https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.03005 Fermilab physics 101: https://www.fnal.gov/pub/science/particle-physics-101/index.html Fermilab home page: https://fnal.gov