Empirical Survey of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Matrix Elements

Abstract

Neutrinoless double beta decay has been the subject of intensive theoretical work as it represents the only practical approach to discovering whether neutrinos are Majorana particles or not, and whether lepton number is a conserved quantum number. Available calculations of matrix elements and phase-space factors are reviewed from the perspective of a future large-scale experimental search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Somewhat unexpectedly, a uniform inverse correlation between phase space and the square of the nuclear matrix element emerges. As a consequence, no isotope is either favored or disfavored; all have qualitatively the same decay rate per unit mass for any given value of the Majorana mass.

10 pages, 5 figures

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• The NUMEN project: NUclear Matrix Elements for Neutrinoless double beta decay
• Frontiers in Nuclear Astrophysics
• Limits on sterile neutrino contributions to neutrinoless double beta decay
• Effective Majorana Mass and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
• Degeneracies of particle and nuclear physics uncertainties in neutrinoless double beta decay
• The saga of neutrinoless double beta decay search with TeO2 thermal detectors
• Search for neutrinoless double beta decay
• The Exposure-Background Duality in the Searches of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
• Status of double beta decay experiments using isotopes other than Xe-136
• Required sensitivity to search the neutrinoless double beta decay in ${}^{124}Sn$
• Projections of Discovery Potentials from Expected Background