Implications of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

Implications of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay PDF Author: Vivek Kumar Nautiyal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783132756519
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Neutrinoless double beta decay is a hypothetical type of radioactive decay in which two neutrons in the nucleus of an atom simultaneously convert into protons, emitting two electrons and no neutrinos. The observation of neutrinoless double beta decay would have significant implications for our understanding of the nature of neutrinos and the properties of matter. It would prove that neutrinos are their own antiparticles (also known as Majorana particles) and that the total lepton number is not conserved. Additionally, it would provide information on the absolute mass scale of neutrinos, which is currently unknown. The observation of neutrinoless double beta decay would also have implications for our understanding of the matter-antimatter imbalance in the universe and the possible existence of physics beyond the standard model . The discovery of radioactivity by Henri Becquerel in 1896 opened a new dimension in the field of nuclear physics. Alpha, beta and gamma rays are the relics of radioactive decays, and their emissions are governed via strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions respectively. The energy spectrum of alpha and gamma decays are discrete in nature due to the emission of a single particle. In 1914, James Chadwick reported the continuous energy spectrum of beta radiation. In order to explain this continuous spectrum, Wolfgang Pauli proposed the emission of a chargeless and massless fermion along with beta particle and called it "neutron" . On 4ᵗʰ December 1930, Pauli wrote a letter to nuclear physicsts who were going to meet a few days later in Tiibingen, Germany, "Dear Radioactive Ladies and Gentlemen, As the bearer of these lines, to whom I graciously ask you to listen, ...... I have hit upon a desperate remedy to save the "exchange theorem" of statistics and the law of conservation of energy. Namely, the possibility that in the nuclei there could exist electrically neutral particles, which I will call neutrons, that have spin and obey the exclusion principle and that further di er from light quanta in that they do not tra el with the elocity o light. he mass o the neutrons should be of the same order of magnitude as the electron mass and in any e ent not larger than 0.01 proton mass. - he continuous beta spectrum would then make sense with the assumption that in beta decay, in addition to the electron, a neutron is emitted such that the sum o the energies of neutron and electron is constant...

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay in Deformed Nuclei

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay in Deformed Nuclei PDF Author: Dong-Liang Fang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Why Search for Double Beta Decay

Why Search for Double Beta Decay PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Searching for neutrinoless double beta decay is the only known practical method for trying to determine whether neutrinos are their own antiparticles. The theoretical motivation for supposing that they may indeed be their own antiparticles is described. The reason that it is so difficult to ascertain experimentally whether they are or are not is explained, as is the special sensitivity of neutrinoless double beta decay. The potential implications of the observation of this reaction for neutrino mass and for the physics of neutrinos is discussed.

Alpha Backgrounds and Their Implications for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay Experiments Using HPGe Detectors

Alpha Backgrounds and Their Implications for Neutrinoless Double-beta Decay Experiments Using HPGe Detectors PDF Author: Robert A. Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Double beta decay
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Neutrino Mass

Neutrino Mass PDF Author: Guido Altarelli
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3540449019
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Reviews the current state of knowledge of neutrino masses and the related question of neutrino oscillations. After an overview of the theory of neutrino masses and mixings, detailed accounts are given of the laboratory limits on neutrino masses, astrophysical and cosmological constraints on those masses, experimental results on neutrino oscillations, the theoretical interpretation of those results, and theoretical models of neutrino masses and mixings. The book concludes with an examination of the potential of long-baseline experiments. This is an essential reference text for workers in elementary-particle physics, nuclear physics, and astrophysics.

Seventy Years of Double Beta Decay

Seventy Years of Double Beta Decay PDF Author: Hans Volker Klapdor-Kleingrothaus
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9812832351
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1559

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Book Description
In the last 20 years the disciplines of particle physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics and cosmology have grown together in an unprecedented way. A brilliant example is nuclear double beta decay, an extremely rare radioactive decay mode, which is one of the most exciting and important fields of research in particle physics at present and the flagship of non-accelerator particle physics. While already discussed in the 1930s, only in the 1980s was it understood that neutrinoless double beta decay can yield information on the Majorana mass of the neutrino, which has an impact on the structure of space-time. Today, double beta decay is indispensable for solving the problem of the neutrino mass spectrum and the structure of the neutrino mass matrix. The potential of double beta decay has also been extended such that it is now one of the most promising tools for probing beyond-the-standard-model particle physics, and gives access to energy scales beyond the potential of future accelerators. This book presents the breathtaking manner in which achievements in particle physics have been made from a nuclear physics process. Consisting of a 150-page highly factual overview of the field of double beta decay and a 1200-page collection of the most important original articles, the book outlines the development of double beta decay research theoretical and experimental from its humble beginnings until its most recent achievements, with its revolutionary consequences for the theory of particle physics. It further presents an outlook on the exciting future of the field.

Momentum Distributions

Momentum Distributions PDF Author: Richard N. Silver
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489925546
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
This volume presents the proceedings of the Workshop on Momentum Distributions held on October 24 to 26, 1988 at Argonne National Laboratory. This workshop was motivated by the enormous progress within the past few years in both experimental and theoretical studies of momentum distributions, by the growing recognition of the importance of momentum distributions to the characterization of quantum many-body systems, and especially by the realization that momentum distribution studies have much in common across the entire range of modern physics. Accordingly, the workshop was unique in that it brought together researchers in nuclear physics, electronic systems, quantum fluids and solids, and particle physics to address the common elements of momentum distribution studies. The topics dis cussed in the workshop spanned more than ten orders of magnitude range in charac teristic energy scales. The workshop included an extraordinary variety of interactions from Coulombic to hard core repulsive, from non-relativistic to extreme relativistic.

Sixty Years of Double Beta Decay

Sixty Years of Double Beta Decay PDF Author: H. V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9789812811929
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1324

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Book Description
Nuclear double beta decay is one of the most promising tools for probing beyond-the-standard-model physics on beyond-accelerator energy scales. It is already now probing the TeV scale, on which new physics should manifest itself according to theoretical expectations. Only in the early 1980s was it known that double beta decay yields information on the Majorana mass of the exchanged neutrino. At present, the sharpest bound for the electron neutrino mass arises from this process. It is only in the last 10 years that the much more far-reaching potential of double beta decay has been discovered. Today, the potential of double beta decay includes a broad range of topics that are equally relevant to particle physics and astrophysics, such as masses of heavy neutrinos, of sneutrinos, as SUSY models, compositeness, leptoquarks, left-right symmetric models, and tests of Lorentz symmetry and equivalence principle in the neutrino sector. Double beta decay has become indispensable nowadays for solving the problem of the neutrino mass spectrum and the structure of the neutrino mass matrix OCo together with present and future solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillation experiments. Some future double beta experiments (like GENIUS) will be capable to be simultaneously neutrino observatories for double beta decay and low-energy solar neutrinos, and observatories for cold dark matter of ultimate sensitivity. This invaluable book outlines the development of double beta research from its beginnings until its most recent achievements, and also presents the outlook for its highly exciting future. Contents: Double Beta Decay OCo Historical Retrospective and Perspectives; Original Articles: From the Early Days until the Gauge Theory Era; The Nuclear Physics Side OCo Nuclear Matrix Elements; The Nuclear Physics Side OCo Nuclear Matrix Elements; Effective Neutrino Masses from Double Beta Decay, Neutrino Mass Models and Cosmological Parameters OCo Present Status and Prospects; Other Beyond Standard Model Physics: From SUSY and Leptoquarks to Compositeness and Quantum Foam; The Experimental Race: From the Late Eighties to the Future; The Future of Double Beta Decay; Appendices: Ten Years of HeidelbergOCoMoscow Experiment; The Potential Future OCo GENIUS. Readership: Particle physicists, nuclear physicists and astrophysicists."

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay PDF Author: V. K. B. Kota
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788173198762
Category : Beta decay
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Many new neutrinoless double beta decay experiments are planned all over the world. This book reviews this and other related experiments, and the theoretical aspects of the neutrinoless double beta decay and its consequences are summarized.

Introduction to the Physics of Massive and Mixed Neutrinos

Introduction to the Physics of Massive and Mixed Neutrinos PDF Author: Samoil Bilenky
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642140424
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
For many years neutrino was considered a massless particle. The theory of a two-componentneutrino,whichplayedacrucialroleinthecreationofthetheoryof theweakinteraction,isbasedontheassumptionthattheneutrinomassisequalto zero. We now know that neutrinos have nonzero, small masses. In numerous exp- iments with solar, atmospheric, reactor and accelerator neutrinos a new p- nomenon, neutrino oscillations, was observed. Neutrino oscillations (periodic transitionsbetweendifferent?avorneutrinos? ,? ,? )arepossibleonlyifneutrino e ? ? mass-squareddifferencesaredifferentfromzeroandsmalland?avorneutrinosare “mixed”. The discovery of neutrino oscillations opened a new era in neutrino physics: an era of investigation of neutrino masses, mixing, magnetic moments and other neutrino properties. After the establishment of the Standard Model of the el- troweak interaction at the end of the seventies, the discovery of neutrino masses was the most important discovery in particle physics. Small neutrino masses cannot be explained by the standard Higgs mechanism of mass generation. For their explanation a new mechanism is needed. Thus, small neutrino masses is the ?rst signature in particle physics of a new beyond the Standard Model physics. It took many years of heroic efforts by many physicists to discover n- trino oscillations. After the ?rst period of investigation of neutrino oscillations, manychallengingproblemsremainedunsolved.Oneofthemostimportantisthe problem of the nature of neutrinos with de?nite masses. Are they Dirac n- trinos possessing a conserved lepton number which distinguish neutrinos and antineutrinos or Majorana neutrinos with identical neutrinos and antineutrinos? Many experiments of the next generation and new neutrino facilities are now under preparation and investigation. There is no doubt that exciting results are ahead.