无中微子双贝塔衰变：寻找马约拉纳中微子之路

无中微子双贝塔衰变是目前粒子物理与核物理学家积极寻找的一种极其稀有的原子核衰变模式。它的发现将验证中微子是否是其本身的反粒子,也就是通常指的马约拉纳费米子。同时这一物理过程破坏轻子数守恒,也可以为宇宙初期的正反物质不对称性提供重要的条件。鉴于其极重要的物理意义,国际上多个实验组利用不同的探测器技术,在多种不同的目标同位素中寻找这一突破粒子物理标准模型的稀有衰变。目前主流实验还未发现确定的无中微子双贝塔衰变信号,但对其半衰期的限制已经达到了10²⁶年量级。国内近期也开展了一系列预研实验,期望在未来几年内可以确定一到两个切实可行的实验方案,开展吨级实验。     

Neutrinoless double beta decay

The physics potential of neutrinoless double beta decay is discussed. Furthermore, experimental considerations as well as the current status of experiments are presented. Finally, an outlook towards the future, work on nuclear matrix elements and alternative processes is given.     

Neutrinoless double beta decay in the LHC era

Once neutrinoless double beta decay is discovered, the question which mechanism triggers the decay becomes crucial for drawing any conclusion about the concrete physics underlying the process, like the neutrino Majorana mass. For example, in the minimal supersymmetric extension with R-parity violation both neutrino Majorana masses and superpartners can trigger the decay. We show that in this case, if the decay is triggered by superpartners, there exist good prospects to observe single slepton production at the LHC. Resonant single slepton production at the LHC can therefore discriminate between the neutrinoless double beta decay mechanism and others.     

Neutrinoless double beta decay studied with configuration mixing methods

We study neutrinoless double beta decay of several isotopes with state-of-the-art beyond self-consistent mean field methods to compute the nuclear matrix elements (NME). The generating coordinate method with particle number and angular momentum projection (GCM +PNAMP) is used for finding mother and granddaughter states and evaluating transition operators between different nuclei. We analyze explicitly the role of the deformation, pairing and configuration mixing in the evaluation of the NME.     

Neutrinoless double beta decay with small and hierarchical neutrino mass

We construct a model where neutrino Majorana masses are small and hierarchical but where neutrinoless double beta decay occurs at an observable rate potentially detectable by present day experiments.     

Neutrinoless double beta decay and a new limit on the lepton number violation

We have calculated the neutrinoless double beta decay rate of ⁷⁶Ge. We take into account for the first time a relativistic correction to the nuclear current including weak magnetism. Its effect is to cancel a considerable part of the decay amplitude and we obtain less stringent upper limits on the neutrino Majorana mass and the right-handed weak leptonic current compared with previous calculations.     

Neutrinoless double Beta decay and lepton flavor violation

We point out that extensions of the standard model with low scale (approximately TeV) lepton number violation (LNV) generally lead to a pattern of lepton flavor violation (LFV) experimentally distinguishable from the one implied by models with grand unified theory scale LNV. As a consequence, muon LFV processes provide a powerful diagnostic tool to determine whether or not the effective neutrino mass can be deduced from the rate of neutrinoless double beta decay. We discuss the role of mu-->egamma and mu-->e conversion in nuclei, which will be studied with high sensitivity in forthcoming experiments.     

Neutrino-less double beta decays and Majorana neutrinos

Neutrino-less double beta decays (0??? ??) are sensitive and realistic probes for studying the Majorana nature of neutrinos, the ?? mass spectrum and the absolute mass scale, the lepton sector CP and others beyond the standard electro-weak theory. This report reviews briefly 0??? ?? processes and Majorana neutrinos, the present and future 0??? ?? experiments and 0??? ?? nuclear matrix elements.     

Neutrinoless neutron decay feasibility

Within nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, it is shown that there is a virtual level in the energy spectrum of the electron moving in the neutron magnetic field considered as a spherical permanent magnet field. This means that the electron capture by the neutron is possible which, in turn, makes it possible to predict the neutrinoless neutron decay in which the captured electron plays the role of missing neutrino. Either produced electron can again undergo neutron capture, thus triggering a chain reaction, i.e., a certain cascade process. Such a chain reaction can be observed if it breaks. It is difficult to distinguish this break from the ordinary neutron beta decay, since the spatial and temporal resolution of modern detectors does not allow detection of cascade electrons.     

Schizophrenic active neutrinos and exotic sterile neutrinos

We implement a schizophrenic scenario for the active neutrinos in a model in which there are also exotic right-handed neutrinos making a model with a local U_(1)B−L$U{(1)}_{B-L}$ anomaly free. Two of right-handed neutrinos carry B−L=−4$B-L=-4$ while the third one carries B−L=5$B-L=5$. Unlike the non-exotic version of the model, in which all right-handed neutrinos carry the same B−L=−1$B-L=-1$ charge, in this case the neutrinos have their own scalar sector and no hierarchy in the Yukawa coupling in the Dirac mass term is necessary.     

Search for heavy sterile neutrinos in trileptons at the LHC

We present a search strategy for both Dirac and Majorana sterile neutrinos from the purely leptonic decays of W~±→e~±e~±μ~?ν and μ~±μ~± e~?ν at the 14 TeV LHC. The discovery and exclusion limits for sterile neutrinos are shown using both the Cut-and-Count(CC) and Multi-Variate Analysis(MVA) methods. We also discriminate between Dirac and Majorana sterile neutrinos by exploiting a set of kinematic observables which differ between the Dirac and Majorana cases. We find that the MVA method, compared to the more common CC method, can greatly enhance the discovery and discrimination limits. Two benchmark points with sterile neutrino mass m N =20 GeV and 50 GeV are tested. For an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb~(-1), sterile neutrinos can be found with 5σ significance if heavy-to-light neutrino mixings |U_(Ne)|~2~|U_(Nμ)|~2~10~(-6), while Majorana vs. Dirac discrimination can be reached if at least one of the mixings is of order 10~(-5).