Abstract:

We show that chiral effective field theory (EFT) two-body currents provide important contributions to the quenching of low-momentum-transfer Gamow-Teller transitions, and use chiral EFT to predict the momentum-transfer dependence that is probed in neutrinoless double-beta (0nubetabeta) decay. We then calculate for the first time the 0nubetabeta decay operator based on chiral EFT currents and study the nuclear matrix elements at successive orders. The contributions from chiral two-body currents are significant and should be included in all calculations.

Notes:

Menendez, J Gazit, D Schwenk, A eng 2011/09/10 06:00 Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Aug 5;107(6):062501. Epub 2011 Aug 1.

Website