Particle Physics Implications of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

Abstract

Neutrinoless double beta decay is a sensitive probe of the patterns of neutrino masses and mixings if the neutrinos are Majorana particles as well as other new physics scenarios beyond the standard model. In this talk, the present experimental lower bound on the lifetime for $\beta\beta_{0\nu}$ is used to constrain the neutrino mixings and set limits on the parameters of the new physics scenarios such as the left-right symmetric models, R-parity violating SUSY models etc which lead to this process. We also discuss proposed high precision searches for $\beta\beta_{0\nu}$ decay that can provide extremely valuable insight not only into the nature of neutrino mixings and masses but also put constraints on (or even rule out) new physics scenarios.