Neutrinoless double beta decay: Electron angular correlation as a probe of new physics

Abstract

The angular distribution of the final electrons in the so-called long range mechanism of the neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu 2\beta$) is derived for the general Lorentz invariant effective Lagrangian. Possible theories beyond the SM are classified from their effects on the angular distribution, which could be used to discriminate among various particle physics models inducing $0\nu 2\beta$ decays. However, additional input on the effective couplings will be required to single out the light Majorana-neutrino mechanism. Alternatively, measurements of the effective neutrino mass and angular distribution in $0\nu 2\beta$ decays can be used to test the correlations among the parameters of the underlying physics models. This is illustrated for the left-right symmetric model, taking into account current phenomenological bounds.

Comments: 16 pages, 5 figures, requires style files 12lomcon.sty and cite.sty; section 3 and figures corrected and revised; several minor changes in the text; more references added and updated