Exploring Baryon Number Violation*

One of the most surprising predictions of the immensely successful Standard Model of particle physics is the strict conservation of baryon number B. This seemingly accidental symmetry ensures the stability of protons and, by extension, of all matter. Simultaneously, B must be broken to explain the apparent dominance of matter over antimatter in our universe. This forces us to investigate the possibility and necessity of baryon number violation. In many well-motivated Standard-Model extensions, such as grand unified theories or supersymmetry, B is violated, inducing a slow decay of protons. These models have dominated the theoretical and experimental investigations of baryon number violation for 50 years. In this talk, we will explore alternative signatures by carefully constructing B-violating models that have been overlooked thus far. The observation of baryon number violation at the next generation of deep-underground detectors, namely JUNO, Hyper-Kamiokande, and DUNE, would be a groundbreaking discovery both for particle physics and cosmology.