Majorana Neutrino Masses from Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay and Cosmology

Abstract

When three Majorana neutrinos describe the solar and atmospheric neutrino data via oscillations, a nonzero measurement of neutrinoless double beta ($0νββ$) decay can determine the sum of neutrino masses $\sum m_ν$ if the solar solution has small-angle mixing, and place a lower bound on $\sum m_ν$ for large-angle solar mixing. If in addition a nonzero $\sum m_ν$ is deduced from cosmology, the neutrino mass spectrum may be uniquely specified for some ranges of neutrino parameters. For $\sum m_ν> 0.75$ eV, the small-angle solar solution is excluded by the current upper limit on neutrinoless double beta decay. In models with maximal solar mixing the $CP$ phases of the neutrinos may be strongly constrained by stringent upper bounds on $0νββ$ decay.