Dark matter induced nucleon decay through the neutron portal

The neutron portal operator provides a theoretically motivated connection between the visible and dark sectors and features in several well-studied asymmetric dark matter models. This operator leads to dark matter induced nucleon decays that mimic the experimental signature of “ordinary” nucleon decays. In this work, we reinterpret Super-Kamiokande nucleon decay searches for n → π 0 ν and p → π + ν to constrain dark matter induced nucleon decays. For GeV-scale dark matter, we obtain lower bounds of O ( 1 TeV ) on the scale of the effective neutron portal operator. We also discuss the prospects for future searches at Hyper-Kamiokande and highlight the importance of a dedicated experimental analysis with reduced systematic uncertainties.