English

Ab initio correlations between neutrinoless and two-neutrino double-beta decays in $^{48}$Ca

Nuclear Theory 2026-05-20 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Nuclear Experiment

Abstract

We develop a novel ab initio in-medium no-core configuration-interaction (IM-NCCI) framework for nuclear charge-exchange processes by combining the in-medium similarity renormalization group with chiral nuclear Hamiltonians, and apply it to the 2νββ2\nu\beta\beta and 0νββ0\nu\beta\beta decays of 48^{48}Ca. This framework reproduces the locations of several main resonance peaks in the Gamow-Teller (GT) strength distribution for the 48Ca48Sc^{48}\mathrm{Ca}\to{}^{48}\mathrm{Sc} transition. The cumulative GT strength indicates missing contributions from two-body weak currents, corresponding to an effective quenching factor of q0.84q\simeq0.84. Incorporating this quenching yields a 2νββ2\nu\beta\beta nuclear matrix element (NME) in excellent agreement with experiment. Applying the same framework to 0νββ0\nu\beta\beta decay, and including the contribution from short-range operators, we obtain a total NME of M0ν=1.00-2.02M^{0\nu}=1.00\text{-}2.02. Using 34 non-implausible chiral Hamiltonians, we establish from first principles strong linear correlations between the 0νββ0\nu\beta\beta NME and the NMEs governing 2νββ2\nu\beta\beta decay and double GT transitions. Combining these correlation relations within the 95% confidence level with the experimental 2νββ2\nu\beta\beta-decay data yields a constrained prediction of M0ν=1.30-1.65M^{0\nu}=1.30\text{-}1.65. This work establishes IM-NCCI as a complementary ab initio framework for nuclear weak decays and opens a pathway toward constraining 0νββ0\nu\beta\beta NMEs in heavier candidate nuclei using experimentally accessible 2νββ2\nu\beta\beta-decay data.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.19479,
  title  = {Ab initio correlations between neutrinoless and two-neutrino double-beta decays in $^{48}$Ca},
  author = {X. Lian and C. R. Ding and C. L. Bai and J. M. Yao},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.19479},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

6 pages with 4 figures in the main text, and an additional 6 pages with 7 figures in the supplemental materials