Description
Neutrinoless double-beta decay, if observed, would signal
physics beyond the Standard Model that would be discovered
at energies significantly lower than those at which the
relevant degrees of freedom can be excited. Therefore, it
could be difficult to use the neutrinoless double-beta decay
observations to distinguish between several beyond Standard
Model competing mechanisms that were propose to explain this
process. Accurate nuclear structure calculations of the
nuclear matrix elements (NME) necessary to analyze the decay
rates could be helpful to narrow down the list of competing
mechanisms, and to better identify the more exotic
properties of the neutrinos. In my talk I will review the
neutrino physics relevant for double-beta decay, I will
analyze the status of the shell model calculation of the
NME, and their relevance for discriminating the contribution
of possible competing mechanisms to the neutrinoless
double-beta decay process. U.S. DoE grant DE-SC0008529 and
U.S. NSF grants PHY-1068217 and PHY-1404442 are acknowledged.
