An effective method to accurately calculate the phase space factors for $\beta^- \beta^-$ decay

Abstract

Accurate calculations of the electron phase space factors are necessary for reliable predictions of double-beta decay rates, and for the analysis of the associated electron angular and energy distributions. We present an effective method to calculate these phase space factors that takes into account the distorted Coulomb field of the daughter nucleus, yet allows one to easily calculate the phase space factors with good accuracy relative to the most exact methods available in the recent literature.