Degeneracies of particle and nuclear physics uncertainties in neutrinoless double beta decay

Abstract

Theoretical estimates for the half life of neutrinoless double beta decay in candidate nuclei are affected by both particle and nuclear physics uncertainties, which may complicate the interpretation of decay signals or limits. We study such uncertainties and their degeneracies in the following context: three nuclei of great interest for large-scale experiments (76-Ge, 130-Te, 136-Xe), two representative particle physics mechanisms (light and heavy Majorana neutrino exchange), and a large set of nuclear matrix elements (NME), computed within the quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA). It turns out that the main theoretical uncertainties, associated with the effective axial coupling g_A and with the nucleon-nucleon potential, can be parametrized in terms of NME rescaling factors, up to small residuals. From this parametrization, the following QRPA features emerge: (1) the NME dependence on g_A is milder than quadratic; (2) in each of the two mechanisms, the relevant lepton number violating parameter is largely degenerate with the NME rescaling factors; and (3) the light and heavy neutrino exchange mechanisms are basically degenerate in the above three nuclei. We comment on the challenging theoretical and experimental improvements required to reduce such particle and nuclear physics uncertainties and their degeneracies.

11 pages, including 5 figures (one new). Clarifications added in the text. To appear in Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (29)

• Results on neutrinoless double beta decay of 76Ge from GERDA Phase I
• Phase space factors for double-$\beta$ decay
• Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay in ${}^{136}$Xe with EXO-200
• Limit on Neutrinoless ββ Decay of Xe-136 from the First Phase of KamLAND-Zen and Comparison with the Positive Claim in Ge-76
• Anatomy of nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double-beta decay
• $0\nu \beta \beta$ and $2\nu \beta \beta$ nuclear matrix elements in the interacting boson model with isospin restoration
• Nuclear matrix elements for double-β decay
• $0\nu \beta \beta$ and $2\nu \beta \beta$ nuclear matrix elements, QRPA, and isospin symmetry restoration
• Erratum: Assessment of uncertainties in QRPA $0\nu \beta \beta$-decay nuclear matrix elements [Nucl. Phys. A 766, 107 (2006)]
• The 0nbb-decay nuclear matrix elements with self-consistent short-range correlations
• Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: a Probe of Physics Beyond the Standard Model
• Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay of ${}^{130}$Te with CUORE-0
• Constraining Neutrino Mass from Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
• Arbitrary mass Majorana neutrinos in neutrinoless double beta decay
• Recent Progress in Double Beta Decay
• Pinning down the mechanism of neutrinoless double beta decay with measurements in different nuclei
• New expectations and uncertainties on neutrinoless double beta decay
• Overconstrained estimates of neutrinoless double beta decay within the QRPA
• Uncovering Multiple CP-Nonconserving Mechanisms of $\betabeta$-Decay
• Multiple-Isotope Comparison for Determining Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay Mechanisms
• Quasiparticle random phase approximation uncertainties and their correlations in the analysis of neutrinoless double beta decay
• Shell model analysis of competing mechanism to the double-beta decay of ${}^{48}$Ca
• Few active mechanisms of the neutrinoless double beta-decay and effective mass of Majorana neutrinos
• The Effect of Cancellation in Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
• Empirical Survey of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Matrix Elements
• Phenomenology of neutrinoless double beta decay
• Probing particle and nuclear physics models of neutrinoless double beta decay with different nuclei
• Addendum to: QRPA uncertainties and their correlations in the analysis of neutrinoless double beta decay
• Chiral Two-Body Currents and Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay in the QRPA

Cited by in corpus (18)

• Status and Future of Nuclear Matrix Elements for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay: A Review
• Neutrinoless double beta decay: 2015 review
• Global constraints on absolute neutrino masses and their ordering
• Neutrinoless double beta decay and neutrino mass
• Current unknowns in the three neutrino framework
• Neutrinoless $\beta \beta$ decay mediated by the exchange of light and heavy neutrinos: The role of nuclear structure correlations
• Beyond-mean-field approaches for nuclear neutrinoless double beta decay in the standard mechanism
• Unraveling the $0\nu \beta \beta$ Decay Mechanisms
• Rare meson decays with three pairs of quasi-degenerate heavy neutrinos
• The saga of neutrinoless double beta decay search with TeO2 thermal detectors
• Search for neutrinoless double beta decay
• Probing the Mechanism of Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay in Multiple Isotopes
• Half-life Expectations for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay in Standard and Non-Standard Scenarios
• The interpolating formula for the $0\nu \beta \beta$-decay half-life in the case of light and heavy neutrino mass mechanisms
• Interplay between non-interfering neutrino exchange mechanisms and nuclear matrix elements in $0\nu \beta \beta$ decay
• Zooming in on eV-MeV Scale Sterile Neutrinos in light of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
• Inference of neutrino nature and Majorana CP phases from $0\nu \beta \beta$ decays with inverted mass ordering
• $0\nu \beta \beta$ to the first $2^{+}$ state with two-nucleon mechanism for L-R symmetric model