Probing Double Beta-Decay by Heavy Ion Charge Exchange Reactions

Abstract

A special class of nuclear double charge exchange (DCE) reactions proceeding as a one-step reaction through a two-body process are shown to involve nuclear matrix elements of the same diagrammatic structure as in 0ν2β decay. These hadronic Majorana-type DCE reactions (MDCE) have to be distinguished from second order DCE reactions, given by double single charge exchange (DSCE) processes resembling 2ν2β decay. The theoretical concepts of MDCE are discussed. First results show that ion-ion DCE reactions are the ideal testing grounds for investigations of second order nuclear matrix elements.