The search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0νββ$) is one of the key experiments for determining unresolved properties of neutrinos. Experimental observation of $0νββ$ would provide a clear demonstration of the Majorana nature of neutrinos and a lepton number violating process in particle physics. This report is a brief review describing the $0νββ$ process and its significance. The detector technologies used in the present and proposed $0νββ$ experiments are compared among their recent experimental results. Moreover, the sensitivities for $0νββ$ discovery in a number of present and proposed $0νββ$ experiments are introduced.
Liquid scintillator experiments for neutrinoless double beta decay search have high sensitivity based on the ultra low background environment and high scalability. This paper describes an overview of current ongoing projects KamLAND-Zen and SNO+.
Environmental radioactivity is a dominant background for rare decay search experiments, and it is difficult to completely remove such an impurity from detector vessels. We propose a scintillation balloon as the active vessel of a liquid scintillator in order to identify this undesirable radioactivity. According to our feasibility studies, the scintillation balloon enables the bismuth--polonium sequential decay to be tagged with a 99.7\% efficiency, assuming a KamLAND (Kamioka Liquid scintillator AntiNeutrino Detector)-type liquid scintillator detector. This tagging of sequential decay using al…
This paper presents a review of the search for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{76}$Ge with emphasis on the recent results of the GERDA experiment. It includes an appraisal of fifty years of research on this topic as well as an outlook.
Of the many extensions to the standard model that could possibly generate neutrino mass, most necessitate the neutrino being a Majorana fermion. If this is the case, the rare process of neutrinoless double beta decay is predicted with half lives greater than about $10^{25}$ years. Many current and future experiments look for this decay by identifying a summed double beta energy at the Q value of the decay, but adding energy and angular measurements of the individual betas allows the underlying decay mechanism to be probed. A novel nano-tracking detector based on a clever combination of thin fi…
SNO+ is a large multipurpose neutrino detector situated 2km underground at SNOLAB in Sudbury, Canada. It reuses the structure of the SNO experiment with numerous infrastructure upgrades and with heavy water replaced by ultra-pure liquid scintillator. The detector will be loaded with 0.5% natural tellurium in order to search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0νββ$). The expected sensitivity after 5 years of data taking is T$^{0ν} _{1/2} > 1.9 \times 10^{26}$ years (90% CL). A future increase in loading could achieve a sensitivity of ${\sim}10^{27}$ years.
We discuss the contribution of right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) to the effective neutrino mass of the neutrinoless double beta decay within the minimal type-I seesaw model using the intrinsic seesaw relation of neutrino mass and mixing parameters and the relative mass dependence of the nuclear matrix elements. In the viable parameter space, we find the possibilities of both the enhancement and cancellation to the effective neutrino mass from RHNs. The bounds on the parameter space of the RHNs can be determined with the effective neutrino mass extracted from neutrinoless double beta decay experime…
Recent neutrino experiment results show a preference for the normal neutrino mass ordering. The global efforts to search for neutrinoless double beta decays undergo a broad gap with the approach to the prediction in the three-neutrino framework based on the normal ordering. This research is intended to show that it is possible to find a neutrinoless double beta decay signal even with normal ordered neutrino masses. We propose the existence of a light sterile neutrino as a solution to the higher effective mass of the electron neutrino expected by the current experiments. A few short-baseline os…
We discuss a mechanism of neutrinoless double beta decay, where neutrinos of different flavours come into play. This is realized by effective flavour-violating scalar interactions. As one consequence, we find that within the normal mass ordering the neutrino effective mass may no longer vanish due to contributions from other flavours. We evaluate the necessary nuclear matrix elements, consider the interference between the standard diagram and the new scalar one, and analyze a UV-complete model that realizes the scalar interaction. Tests of the complete model are possible at colliders and futur…
Addendum to: QRPA uncertainties and their correlations in the analysis of neutrinoless double beta decay
在以前的文章[Phys. Rev. D 79，053001（2009）]中，我们在准粒子无规相位近似（QRPA）中估计了与无中微子双β衰变（0 nu β β）的核矩阵元（NME）相关的不确定性。这种估计包括最近对NME的独立计算，因此仍然可以提供核模型不确定性的公平代表。在这种情况下，我们比较了Ge-76中0 nu β β衰变的声明与最近在Ge-136和其他核中的负结果，并推断了在90% C. L.时允许或排除的寿命范围。我们还强调了一些问题，应加以解决，以适当地比较和结合来自不同的0 nu β β衰变候选核的结果。
We quantify the extent to which future experiments will test the existence of neutrinoless double-beta decay mediated by light neutrinos with inverted-ordered masses. While it remains difficult to compare measurements performed with different isotopes, we find that future searches will fully test the inverted ordering scenario, as a global, multi-isotope endeavor. They will also test other possible mechanisms driving the decay, including a large uncharted region of the allowed parameter space assuming that neutrino masses follow the normal ordering.
