Speaker
Description
Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) will provide unprecedented sensitivity to proton decay searches, offering a unique opportunity to probe grand unified theories through the observation of baryon number violation. The HK proton decay program encompasses multiple decay channels with complementary discovery potential and is expected to extend the search reach well beyond current limits.
This poster presents an overview of the HK proton decay search program, including its physics motivation, detector capabilities, and projected discovery reach. Particular emphasis is placed on key benchmark channels such as $p\to e^+\pi^0$ and $p\to\bar{\nu}K^+$, which are among the most sensitive probes of proton decay in water Cherenkov detectors. Recent progress in studies of the $p\to\bar{\nu}K^+$ channel is also highlighted, including developments in event reconstruction and signal-background discrimination techniques aimed at improving the sensitivity of future searches. Together, these efforts demonstrate the strong discovery potential of HK for testing baryon number violation over the coming decades.