Minimally allowed beta beata 0_nu rates from approximate flavor symmetries
James P. Jenkins · OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) · 2024
Neutrinoless double beta decay ({beta}{beta}0{nu}) is the only realistic probe of Majorana neutrinos. In the standard scenario, dominated by light neutrino exchange, the process amplitude is proportional to m{sub ee} , the e - e element of the Majorana mass matrix. This is expected to hold true for small {beta}{beta}{nu} rates ({Gamma}{sub {beta}{beta}0{nu}}), even in the presence of new physics. Naively, current data allows for vanishing m{sub ee} , but this should be protected by an appropriate flavor symmetry. All such symmetries lead to mass matrices inconsistent with oscillation phenomenology. Hence, Majorana neutrinos imply nonzero {Gamma}{sub {beta}{beta}0{nu}}. I perform a spurion analysis to break all possible abelian symmetries that guarantee {Gamma}{sub {beta}{beta}0{nu}} = 0 and search for minimally allowed m{sub ee} values. Specifically, I survey 259 broken structures to yield m{sub ee} values and current phenomenological constraints under a variety of scenarios. This analysis also extracts predictions for both neutrino oscillation parameters and kinematic quantities. Assuming reasonable tuning levels, I find that m{sub ee} > 4 x 10{sup -6} eV at 99% confidence. Bounds below this value would indicate the Dirac neutrino nature or the existence of new light (eV-MeV scale) degrees of freedom that can potentially be probed elsewhere. This limit can be raised by improvements in neutrino parameter measurements, particularly of the reactor mixing angle, depending on the best fit parameter values. Such improvements will also significantly constrain the available model space and aid in future constructions.