No Arabic abstract
Second order beta-decay processes with and without neutrinos in the final state are key probes of nuclear physics and of the nature of neutrinos. Neutrinoful double-beta decay is the rarest Standard Model process that has been observed and provides a unique test of the understanding of weak nuclear interactions. Observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay would reveal that neutrinos are Majorana fermions and that lepton number conservation is violated in nature. While significant progress has been made in phenomenological approaches to understanding these processes, establishing a connection between these processes and the physics of the Standard Model and beyond is a critical task as it will provide input into the design and interpretation of future experiments. The strong-interaction contributions to double-beta decay processes are non-perturbative and can only be addressed systematically through a combination of lattice Quantum Chromoodynamics (LQCD) and nuclear many-body calculations. In this review, current efforts to establish the LQCD connection are discussed for both neutrinoful and neutrinoless double-beta decay. LQCD calculations of the hadronic contributions to the neutrinoful process $nnto pp e^- e^- bar u_ebar u_e$ and to various neutrinoless pionic transitions are reviewed, and the connections of these calculations to the phenomenology of double-beta decay through the use of effective field theory (EFTs) is highlighted. At present, LQCD calculations are limited to small nuclear systems, and to pionic subsystems, and require matching to appropriate EFTs to have direct phenomenological impact. However, these calculations have already revealed qualitatively that there are terms in the EFTs that can only be constrained from double-beta decay processes themselves or using inputs from LQCD. Future prospects for direct calculations in larger nuclei are also discussed.
Observation of neutrinoless double beta decay, a lepton number violating process that has been proposed to clarify the nature of neutrino masses, has spawned an enormous world-wide experimental effort. Relating nuclear decay rates to high-energy, beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics requires detailed knowledge of non-perturbative QCD effects. Using lattice QCD, we compute the necessary matrix elements of short-range operators, which arise due to heavy BSM mediators, that contribute to this decay via the leading order $pi^- to pi^+$ exchange diagrams. Utilizing our result and taking advantage of effective field theory methods will allow for model-independent calculations of the relevant two-nucleon decay, which may then be used as input for nuclear many-body calculations of the relevant experimental decays. Contributions from short-range operators may prove to be equally important to, or even more important than, those from long-range Majorana neutrino exchange.
Nucleon-nucleon (NN) potential is studied by lattice QCD simulations in the quenched approximation, using the plaquette gauge action and the Wilson quark action on a 32^4 (simeq (4.4 fm)^4) lattice. A NN potential V_{NN}(r) is defined from the equal-time Bethe-Salpeter amplitude with a local interpolating operator for the nucleon. By studying the NN interaction in the ^1S_0 and ^3S_1 channels, we show that the central part of V_{NN}(r) has a strong repulsive core of a few hundred MeV at short distances (r alt 0.5 fm) surrounded by an attractive well at medium and long distances. These features are consistent with the known phenomenological features of the nuclear force.
We present the first ab initio calculations of neutrinoless double beta decay matrix elements in $A=6$-$12$ nuclei using Variational Monte Carlo wave functions obtained from the Argonne $v_{18}$ two-nucleon potential and Illinois-7 three-nucleon interaction. We study both light Majorana neutrino exchange and potentials arising from a large class of multi-TeV mechanisms of lepton number violation. Our results provide benchmarks to be used in testing many-body methods that can be extended to the heavy nuclei of experimental interest. In light nuclei we have also studied the impact of two-body short range correlations and the use of different forms for the transition operators, such as those corresponding to different orders in chiral effective theory.
Accurate nuclear matrix elements (NMEs) for neutrinoless double beta decays of candidate nuclei are important for the design and interpretation of future experiments. Significant progress has been made in the modeling of these NMEs from first principles. The NME for 48Ca shows a good agreement among three different ab initio calculations starting from the same nuclear interaction constructed within the chiral EFT and the same decay operator. These studies open the door to ab initio calculations of the matrix elements for the decay of heavier nuclei such as 76Ge, 130Te, and 136Xe. The ultimate goal is the computation of NMEs in many-body calculations with controllable approximations, using nuclear interactions and weak transition operators derived consistently from chiral EFT. We are expecting more progress towards this goal in the near future.
Recent progress in nuclear-structure theory has been dramatic. I describe recent and future applications of ab initio calculations and the generator coordinate method to double-beta decay. I also briefly discuss the old and vexing problem of the renormalization of the weak nuclear axial-vector coupling constant in medium and plans to resolve it.