Test of Electric Charge Conservation with Borexino

Phys Rev Lett. 2015 Dec 4;115(23):231802. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.231802. Epub 2015 Dec 3.

Abstract

Borexino is a liquid scintillation detector located deep underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS, Italy). Thanks to the unmatched radio purity of the scintillator, and to the well understood detector response at low energy, a new limit on the stability of the electron for decay into a neutrino and a single monoenergetic photon was obtained. This new bound, τ≥6.6×10^{28} yr at 90% C.L., is 2 orders of magnitude better than the previous limit.