Ab initio calculations of two-neutrino and neutrinoless double-$\boldsymbolβ$ decay of $^{48}$Ca and related Gamow-Teller strength distributions

Abstract

We present ab initio calculations of two-neutrino double-beta ($2νββ$) decay of $^{48}$Ca and the related Gamow-Teller (GT) strength functions in $^{48}$Sc using the valence-space in-medium similarity renormalization group (VS-IMSRG) with nuclear interactions and electroweak currents based on chiral effective field theory. We find that the usual $pf$-shell valence space significantly underestimates the nuclear matrix element (NME) of $2νββ$ decay compared to experiment, while an enlarged $d_{3/2}pf$ valence space yields very good agreement with the experimental value without any adjustments. We trace this to an improved description of the involved GT strength distributions, so that the enlarged valence space captures important correlations. The enlarged $d_{3/2}pf$ valence space leads to neutrinoless $ββ$ NMEs of $^{48}$Ca that are twice as large compared to the $pf$-shell calculation. Our findings suggest that studies with different valence spaces and related GT strengths are important for assessing ab initio NME calculations of heavier $ββ$ decays.