Heavy Physics Contributions to Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay from QCD

• Published in: Physical review letters 2018-10, Vol.121 (17), p.172501-172501, Article 172501
• Main Authors: Nicholson, A, Berkowitz, E, Monge-Camacho, H, Brantley, D, Garron, N, Chang, C C, Rinaldi, E, Clark, M A, Joó, B, Kurth, T, Tiburzi, B C, Vranas, P, Walker-Loud, A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Beta decay; Decay rate; Exchanging; Field theory; Leptons; Many body interactions; Mathematical models; Neutrinos; Operators; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Quantum chromodynamics; Standard model (particle physics)
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.172501

Observation of neutrinoless double beta decay, a lepton number violating process that has been proposed to clarify the nature of neutrino masses, has spawned an enormous world-wide experimental effort. Relating nuclear decay rates to high-energy, beyond the standard model (BSM) physics requires detailed knowledge of nonperturbative QCD effects. Using lattice QCD, we compute the necessary matrix elements of short-range operators, which arise due to heavy BSM mediators, that contribute to this decay via the leading order π^{-}→π^{+} exchange diagrams. Utilizing our result and taking advantage of effective field theory methods will allow for model-independent calculations of the relevant two-nucleon decay, which may then be used as input for nuclear many-body calculations of the relevant experimental decays. Contributions from short-range operators may prove to be equally important to, or even more important than, those from long-range Majorana neutrino exchange.