Towards an effective field theory approach to the neutrinoless double-beta decay

Abstract

Weak interaction in nuclei represents a well-known venue for testing many of the fundamental symmetries of the Standard Model. In particular, neutrinoless double-beta decay offers the possibility to test Beyond Standard Model theories predicting that neutrinos are Majorana fermions and the lepton number conservation is violated. This paper focuses on an effective field theory approach to neutrinoless double-beta decay for extracting information regarding the properties of the Beyond Standard Model Lagrangian responsible for this process. We use shell model nuclear matrix elements and the latest experimental lower limits for the half-lives to extract the lepton number violating parameters of five nuclei of experimental interest, and lower limits for the energy scales of the new physics.