Speaker
Javier Menendez
(Center for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo)
Description
The reach of neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay searches that aim to observe lepton number violation and show that neutrinos are Majorana particles, depends on the nuclear matrix elements that govern the decay. The calculated nuclear matrix elements, however, suffer from several limitations. Predicted matrix-element values depend on the many-body method used to obtain them and, in addition, they may need to be “quenched”, albeit by an unknown amount. These uncertainties are hard to figure out from theoretical calculations alone because of the unique character of 0νββ decay, not clearly related to other nuclear structure observables.
In this presentation I will note the relation between the 0νββ decay, and double Gamow-Teller (DGT)transitions that can in principle be measured in double charge-exchange reactions. Shell model calculations in a very wide range of nuclei, covering from Ca-48 to Xe-136, suggest a linear correlation between 0νββ decay and DGT transitions. Furthermore, the correlation is in agreement with results from energy-density functional theory. These findings open the door to informing the value of 0νββ decay nuclear matrix elements in nuclear structure experiments.
Primary author
Javier Menendez
(Center for Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo)
