Abstract
The observation of neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay remains crucial for understanding lepton number violation. The inverse half-life for 0νββ-decay is given by the product of a phase space factor (PSF), a nuclear matrix element (NME), which both rely on theoretical description, and a function f containing the physics beyond the standard model. Phase space factors and nuclear matrix elements have been evaluated, or are under evaluation, systematically for all processes of interest. The nuclear matrix elements have been calculated within the framework of the microscopic interacting boson model (IBM-2), and phase space factors have been evaluated using exact Dirac electron wave functions. The current situation is then discussed by combining the theoretical results with experimental limits on the half-life of neutrinoless double beta decay. The extracted limits on the average light neutrino mass are addressed, complemented with a discussion of other possible 0νββ-decay mechanisms and scenarios.
Highlights
The question of whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles and what are their average masses remains one of the most fundamental problems in physics today
I.e. it is a product of a phase space factor (PSF), a nuclear matrix element (NME), and a function f containing the physics beyond the standard model
PSF and NME both rely on theoretical description and their calculation serves the purpose of extracting physics beyond the standard model if 0νββ-decay is observed, and of guiding searches if 0νββ-decay is not observed
Summary
The question of whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles and what are their average masses remains one of the most fundamental problems in physics today. I.e. it is a product of a phase space factor (PSF), a nuclear matrix element (NME), and a function f containing the physics beyond the standard model. The nuclear matrix elements have been calculated within the framework of the microscopic interacting boson model (IBM-2) [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7], and phase space factors have been evaluated using exact Dirac electron wave functions as reported in [5, 8, 9, 10, 11]. 1643 (2020) 012023 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1643/1/012023 combining the theoretical results with experimental limits on the half-life of neutrinoless double beta decay. The extracted limits on the average light neutrino mass are addressed, complemented with a discussion of other possible 0νββ-decay mechanisms and scenarios, namely, existence of sterile neutrinos and inclusion of non-standard mechanisms of double beta decay
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