Effective double-beta-decay operator for 76Ge and 82Se

Abstract

We use diagrammatic many-body perturbation theory in combination with low-momentum interactions derived from chiral effective field theory to construct effective shell-model transition operators for the neutrinoless double-beta decay of 76Ge and 82Se. We include all unfolded diagrams to first- and second-order in the interaction and all singly folded diagrams that can be constructed from them. The resulting effective operator, which accounts for physics outside the shell-model space, increases the nuclear matrix element by about 20% in 76Ge and 30% in 82Se.