Related papers: Neutrinoless double beta decay without Majorana ne…
Neutrinoless double beta decay is a hypothetical radioactive process which, if observed, would prove the neutrino to be a Majorana fermion: a particle that is its own antiparticle. In this lecture mini-series I discuss the physics of…
Neutrinoless double beta decay pops up almost in any extension of the standard model. It is perhaps the only process, which can unambiguously determine whether the massive neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac type particles. In addition from the…
Neutrinoless double beta decay is one of the most powerful tools to set the neutrino mass absolute scale and establish whether the neutrino is a Majorana particle. After a summary of the neutrinoless double beta decay phenomenology, the…
This paper reviews the current status and future outlook of neutrinoless double beta decay searches, which try to provide an answer to the fundamental question of whether neutrinos are Dirac or Majorana particles.
Neutrinoless double beta decay is a process of fundamental importance for particle physics. It can be mediated by light massive Majorana neutrinos (standard interpretation) or by something else (non-standard interpretations). We review its…
The history of research associated with the fundamental problem of the nature of massive neutrinos, which can be Dirac particles or Majorana fermions, and the related processes of neutrinoless double beta decay, $(A,Z)\rightarrow (A,Z+2) +…
If the electron neutrino has an effective nonzero Majorana mass, then neutrinoless double beta decay will occur. However, the latter is possible also with a negligible neutrino mass. We show how this may happen in a simple model of scalar…
A brief sketch is given of the present observational status and future prospects of the physics of neutrino mass, including a survey of the various theoretical schemes of neutrino mass generation. Emphasis is given to those which are…
The detection of neutrinoless double-beta decay will establish the Majorana nature of neutrinos. In addition, if the nuclear matrix elements of this process are reliably known, the experimental lifetime will provide precious information…
The theoretical and experimental issues relevant to neutrinoless double-beta decay are reviewed. The impact that a direct observation of this exotic process would have on elementary particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics and…
According to the "Black Box" theorem the experimental confirmation of neutrinoless double beta decay ($0 \nu 2 \beta$) would imply that at least one of the neutrinos is a Majorana particle. However, a null $0 \nu 2 \beta$ signal cannot…
A significant signal of neutrinoless double beta decay can be consistent with the existence of light quasi-Dirac neutrinos. To demonstrate this possibility, we consider a realistic model where the neutrino masses and the neutrinoless double…
The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is a rich source for new physics. The observation of this decay will lead to understanding of the absolute mass scale of neutrinos, the Majorana nature of the neutrino (whether the neutrino is…
In spite of the general belief that neutrinos are Majorana particles, their character should be revealed experimentally. We begin by discussing why it is so difficult in terrestrial experiments. If neutrinos are Majorana particles, the…
We consider the scheme with mixing of three neutrinos and a mass hierarchy. We shown that, under the natural assumptions that massive neutrinos are Majorana particles and there are no unlikely fine-tuned cancellations among the…
We review the particle physics aspects of neutrino-less double beta decay. This process can be mediated by light massive Majorana neutrinos (standard interpretation) or by something else (non-standard interpretations). The physics potential…
Neutrinoless double beta decay is the only process known so far able to test the neutrino intrinsic nature: its experimental observation would imply that the lepton number is violated by two units and prove that neutrinos have a Majorana…
In this brief review we discuss the generation of Majorana neutrino masses through the see-saw mechanism, the theory of neutrinoless double-beta decay, the implications of neutrino oscillation data for the effective Majorana mass, taking…
Determining the nature -Dirac or Majorana- of massive neutrinos is one of the most pressing and challenging problems in the field of neutrino physics. We discuss how one can possibly extract information on the couplings, if any, which might…
Neutrinoless double beta decay has been the subject of intensive theoretical work as it represents the only practical approach to discovering whether neutrinos are Majorana particles or not, and whether lepton number is a conserved quantum…