Ab initio correlations between neutrinoless and two-neutrino double-beta decays in $^{48}$Ca
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 and decays of Ca. This framework reproduces the locations of several main resonance peaks in the Gamow-Teller (GT) strength distribution for the transition. The cumulative GT strength indicates missing contributions from two-body weak currents, corresponding to an effective quenching factor of . Incorporating this quenching yields a nuclear matrix element (NME) in excellent agreement with experiment. Applying the same framework to decay, and including the contribution from short-range operators, we obtain a total NME of . Using 34 non-implausible chiral Hamiltonians, we establish from first principles strong linear correlations between the NME and the NMEs governing decay and double GT transitions. Combining these correlation relations within the 95% confidence level with the experimental -decay data yields a constrained prediction of . This work establishes IM-NCCI as a complementary ab initio framework for nuclear weak decays and opens a pathway toward constraining NMEs in heavier candidate nuclei using experimentally accessible -decay data.
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