Two neutrino double beta decay within the $\xi$-approximation

Abstract

We examine the contributions of odd-parity nuclear operators to the two-neutrino double beta decay $0^{+}\to 0^{+}$ amplitude, which come from the $P$-wave Coulomb corrections to the electron wave functions and the recoil corrections to the nuclear currents. Although they are formally of higher order in $\alpha Z/2$ or $v/c$ of the nucleon than the usual Fermi and Gamow-Teller matrix elements, explicit calculations performed within the QRPA show that they are significant when confronted with the experimental data.

Comments: 9 pages, latex, no figures