Proton Decay: GUT Cherenkov Detector

Grand Unified Theories predict that the proton is not perfectly stable: heavy X/Y gauge bosons let it decay, dominantly into a positron and a neutral pion, with a lifetime that scales as the fourth power of the unification energy scale. This simulator renders a real water-Cherenkov detector — a cylindrical tank lined with photomultiplier tubes — and drives it with an actual Poisson decay process computed from your chosen GUT scale and fiducial detector mass, using the same proton-density numbers real experiments like Super-Kamiokande use. Each simulated decay sends two back-to-back particles outward that radiate light at the fixed Cherenkov angle in water, sweeping an expanding ring of PMT hits across the tank wall exactly as a real detector would record it, while live readouts track the predicted lifetime, decay rate, elapsed simulated time and events observed.