Related papers: Are Neutrinos Majorana Particles?
Neutrinoless double beta decay can significantly help to shed light on the issue of non-zero neutrino mass, as observation of this lepton number violating process would imply neutrinos are Majorana particles. However, the underlying…
Light sterile neutrinos with masses at the sub-eV or eV scale are hinted by current experimental and cosmological data. Assuming the Majorana nature of these hypothetical particles, we discuss their effects in the neutrinoless double beta…
The theoretical and experimental bases of neutrino mass and mixing are reviewed. A brief chronological evolution of the weak interactions, the electroweak Standard Model, and neutrinos is presented. Dirac and Majorana mass terms are…
Two of the most important and pressing questions in cosmology and particle physics are: (1) What is the nature of cold dark matter? and (2) Will near-future experiments on neutrinoless double beta decay be able to ascertain that the…
The hypothesis that the Majorana mass of ordinary neutrinos dominates the rate of neutrinoless double beta decay is investigated. Predictions from neutrino oscillations are updated. Nuclear uncertainties are discussed, evaluating the impact…
A natural explanation for the smallness of the neutrino mass requires them to be Majorana particles violating lepton number by two units. Since lepton number violation can have several interesting consequences in particle physics and…
Two most outstanding questions are puzzling the world of neutrino Physics: the possible Majorana nature of neutrinos and their absolute mass scale. Direct neutrino mass measurements and neutrinoless double beta decay (0nuDBD) are the…
We investigate purely leptonic decays of leptons $\l^{\prime-}\to l^-\bar{\nu}_l\nu_{l^{\prime}}$ to distinguish Dirac or Majorana neutrinos. We derive the differences of the decay width (and associated quantities) between the two neutrino…
We review and remark on models of radiatively induced neutrino Majorana masses and oscillations. It is pointed out that while the models are capable of accounting for the observed solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillation, some of them can…
This paper reviews some aspects of the physics of neutrinos, in particular neutrino masses and the issue of Dirac versus Majorana neutrinos. The see-saw mechanism is described and it is argued that the Majorana nature of neutrinos can be…
We consider the matter effects on neutrinos moving in background on the basis of the corresponding quantum wave equations. Both Dirac and Majorana neutrino cases are discussed. The effects for Dirac neutrino reflection and trapping as well…
Study of the neutrinoless $\beta\beta$ decay allows us to put a stringent limit on the effective neutrino Majorana mass, a quantity of fundamental importance. To test our ability to evaluate the nuclear matrix elements that govern the decay…
This is a review for Reports of Progress in Physics. After an introduction we start by explaining the different neutrino masses corresponding to different types of neutrinos, Dirac or Majorana, in section 2. In section 3 we discuss the main…
Are neutrinos their own antiparticles? We explain why they very well might be. Then, after highlighting the fact that, to determine experimentally whether they are or not, one must overcome the smallness of neutrino masses, we discuss the…
The search strategy or the finding of new effects for heavy neutrinos often relies on their different decay channels to detectable particles. In particular in this work we study the decay of a Majorana neutrino with interactions obtained…
Even after the discovery of neutrino flavour oscillations, based on data from atmospheric, solar, reactor, and accelerator experiments, many characteristics of the neutrino remain unknown. Only the neutrino square-mass differences and the…
In the last two decades the search for neutrinoless double beta decay has evolved into one of the highest priorities for understanding neutrinos and the origin of mass. The main reason for this paradigm shift has been the discovery of…
A brief essay on how studying neutrinos can help us to better understand the Universe.
In these lectures the following topics are considered: historical remarks and general properties, Dirac and Majorana neutrino masses, effective lagrangian approach, the seesaw mechanism, the number of active left-hauded neutrino species,…
Please see revised version hep-ph/0108052. The ps version of the manuscript contains the original abstract and body.