Status of Evidence for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

Abstract

The present experimental status in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay is reviewed, with emphasis on the first indication for neutrinoless double beta decay found in the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment, giving first evidence for lepton number violation and a Majorana nature of the neutrinos. Future perspectives of the field are briefly outlined.

37 pages, latex, 23 figures, Published in Found. Phys. 32 (2002) 1181-1223 and Presented at Fourth Heidelberg International Conference on Dark Matter in Astro- and Particle Physics, DARK2002, Cape Town, South Africa, 4 - 9 February, 2002, eds. H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus and R. Viollier, Springer-Verlag Heidelberg, (2002) 367-403 see Home Page of Heidelberg Non-Accelerator Particle Physics Group: http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/non_acc/buecher.html#DARK2002