Speaker
Mihai Horoi
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.
