What if a specific neutrinoless double beta decay is absent?
Abstract
We consider the seesaw model with two right-handed neutrinos, $N_1$ and $N_2$, the masses of which are hierarchical, and investigate their contribution to the neutrinoless double beta ($0 \nu \beta \beta$) decay. Although the lepton number is broken by the Majorana masses of right-handed neutrinos, such decay processes can be absent in some cases. We present a possibility where the lighter $N_1$ gives a destructive contribution to the decay of active neutrinos by choosing the specific mixing elements of $N_1$, while $N_2$ is sufficiently heavy not to contribute to the $0 \nu \beta \beta$ decay. In this case the mixing elements of $N_1$ in the charged current interaction are determined by its mass and the Majorana phase of active neutrinos. We then study the impacts of such a possibility on the direct search for $N_1$. In addition, we discuss the consequence of the case when the $0 \nu \beta \beta$ decay in one specific nucleus is absent.
- Publication:
-
Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics
- Pub Date:
- June 2021
- DOI:
- 10.1093/ptep/ptab046
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2012.13186
- Bibcode:
- 2021PTEP.2021f3B01A
- Keywords:
-
- B54;
- B59;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- High Energy Physics - Experiment
- E-Print:
- 20 pages, 10 figures