arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Fedor Simkovic.
We present new formulae for the neutrino masses generated by R-parity violating interactions within minimal supersymmetric standard model. The importance of inclusion of CP phases in the neutrino mass matrix is discussed in detail.
From the standard seesaw mechanism of neutrino mass generation, which is based on the assumption that the lepton number is violated at a large (~10exp(+15) GeV) scale, follows that the neutrinoless double-beta decay is ruled by the Majorana neutrino mass mechanism. Within this notion, for the inverted neutrino-mass hierarchy we derive allowed ranges of half-lives of the neutrinoless double-beta decay for nuclei of experimental interest with different sets of nuclear matrix elements. The present-day results of the calculation of the neutrinoless double-beta decay nuclear matrix elements are briefly discussed. We argue that if neutrinoless double-beta decay will be observed in future experiments sensitive to the effective Majorana mass in the inverted mass hierarchy region, a comparison of the derived ranges with measured half-lives will allow us to probe the standard seesaw mechanism assuming that future cosmological data will establish the sum of neutrino masses to be about 0.2 eV.
The process of neutrinoless double electron capture ($0ν$ECEC) is revisited for those cases where the two participating atoms are nearly degenerate in mass. The theoretical framework is the formalism of an oscillation of two atoms with different total lepton number (and parity), one of which can be in an excited state so that mass degeneracy is realized. In such a case and assuming light Majorana neutrinos, the two atoms will be in a mixed configuration with respect to the weak interaction. A resonant enhancement of transitions between such pairs of atoms will occur, which could be detected by the subsequent electromagnetic de-excitation of the excited state of the daughter atom and nucleus. Available data of atomic masses, as well as nuclear and atomic excitations are used to select the most likely candidates for such resonant $0ν$ECEC transitions. Assuming an effective mass for the Majorana neutrino of 1 eV, some half-lives are predicted to be as low as $10^{22}$ years in the unitary limit. It is argued that, in order to obtain more accurate predictions for the $0ν$ECEC half-lives, precision mass measurements of the atoms involved are necessary, which can readily be accomplished by today's high precision Penning traps. Further advancements also require a better understanding of high-lying excited states of the final nuclei (i.e. excitation energy, angular momentum and parity) and the calculation of the nuclear matrix elements.
The planned rhenium beta-decay experiment MARE might probe the absolute mass scale of neutrinos with the same sensitivity as the tritium beta-decay experiment KATRIN, which will start data taking in 2011 and will proceed for five years. We present the energy distribution of emitted electrons for the first unique forbidden beta-decay of 187Re. It is found that the p-wave emission of electron dominates over the s-wave. By assuming mixing of three neutrinos the Kurie function for the rhenium beta-decay is derived. It is shown that the Kurie plot near the endpoint is within a good accuracy linear in the limit of massless neutrinos like the Kurie plot of the superallowed beta-decay of 3H.
We consider the possibility of several different mechanisms contributing to the $\betabeta$-decay amplitude in the general case of CP nonconservation: light Majorana neutrino exchange, heavy left-handed (LH) and heavy right-handed (RH) Majorana neutrino exchanges, lepton charge non-conserving couplings in SUSY theories with R-parity breaking. If the $\betabeta$-decay is induced by, e.g., two "non-interfering" mechanisms, one can determine $|η_i|^2$ and $|η_j|^2$, $η_i$ and $η_j$ being the two fundamental parameters characterising these mechanisms, from data on the half-lives of two nuclear isotopes. In the case when two "interfering" mechanisms are responsible for the $\betabeta$-decay, $|η_i|^2$ and $|η_j|^2$ and the interference term can be uniquely determined, in principle, from data on the half-lives of three nuclei. Given the half-life of one isotope, the "positivity conditions" $|η_i|^2\geq 0$ and $|η_j|^2\geq 0$ lead to stringent constraints on the half-lives of the other $\betabeta$-decaying isotopes. These conditions, as well as the conditions for constructive (destructive) interference are derived and their implications are analysed in two specific cases. The method considered by us can be generalised to the case of more than two $\betabeta$-decay mechanisms. It allows to treat the cases of CP conserving and CP nonconserving couplings generating the $\betabeta$-decay in a unique way.
We analyze the possibility of detection of cosmological relic neutrinos via neutrino capture on beta decaying nuclei. This reaction has no threshold in neutrino energy, which is crucial for searching for relic neutrinos possessing very low energies. We focus on tritium (3H) and rhenium (187Re) beta radioactive isotopes to be used in KATRIN and MARE experiments dedicated to measurement of the electron neutrino mass at sub-eV scale. We examine these experiments from the viewpoint of searching for the cosmological neutrinos via neutrino capture. We conclude that even with possible gravitational clustering of relic neutrinos the prospects for their detection in these and other similar experiments are not optimistic. Nevertheless KATRIN and MARE experiments could establish some usefull constraints on density of relic neutrinos.
In this paper a microscopic state-of-the-art approach to calculation of the nuclear matrix element $M^{0ν}$ for neutrinoless double beta decay with an account for nuclear deformation is presented in length and applied for $^{76}$Ge, $^{150}$Nd and $^{160}$Gd. The proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA) with a realistic residual interaction [the Brueckner $G$ matrix derived from the charge-depending Bonn (Bonn-CD) nucleon-nucleon potential] is used as the underlying nuclear structure model. The effects of the short range correlations and the quenching of the axial vector coupling constant $g_A$ are analyzed. The results show that neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{150}$Nd, to be measured soon by the SNO+ collaboration, provides one of the best probes of the Majorana neutrino mass. This confirms our preliminary conclusion in Ref. {Fang10}.
We derive formal expressions of time-dependent energy and heat currents through a nanoscopic device using the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green function technique. Numerical results are reported for a metal/dot/metal junction where the dot level energy is abruptly changed by a step-shaped voltage pulse. Analytical linear responses are obtained for the time-dependent thermoelectric coefficients. We show that the Seebeck coefficient can be enhanced in the transient regime up to an amount (here rising 40%) controlled by both the dot energy and the height of the voltage step.
A microscopic state-of-the-art calculation of the nuclear matrix element for neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{150}$Nd with an account for nuclear deformation is performed. The proton-neutron quasiparticle random phase approximation (QRPA) with a realistic residual interaction [the Brueckner $G$ matrix derived from the charge-depending Bonn (Bonn-CD) nucleon-nucleon potential] is used as the underlying nuclear structure model. The present calculated matrix element is suppressed by about 40% as compared with our previous QRPA result for $^{150}$Nd obtained with neglect of deformation. By making use of this newest nuclear matrix element, one may conclude that neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{150}$Nd, to be measured soon by the SNO+ collaboration, provides one of the best probes of the Majorana neutrino mass.
The methods used till now to calculate the neutrinoless double beta decay matrix elements are: the Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation (QRPA), the Shell Model (SM), the angular momentum projected Hartee-Fock-Bogoliubov approach (HFB) and the Interacting Boson Model (IBM). The different approaches are compared specifically concerning the the angular momenta and parities of the neutron pairs, which are changed into two protons by the $0νββ$ decay. The QRPA and SM involve about the same angular momentum and parity neutron pairs, while the HFB is restricted to $0^{+}, 2^{+}, 4^{+}, ...$, and IBM to $0^{+}$ and $2^{+}$ nucleon pairs. The differences in the seniority contributions for the QRPA and the SM are discussed.
It is well known that there exist many mechanisms that may contribute to neutrinoless double beta decay (0nbb-decay). By exploiting the fact that the associated nuclear matrix elements are target dependent we show that, given definite experimental results on a sufficient number of targets, one can determine or sufficiently constrain all lepton violating parameters including the mass term. As a specific example we show that, assuming the observation of the 0nbb-decay in three different nuclei, e.g., 76Ge, 100Mo and 130Te, and just three lepton number violating mechanisms (light and heavy neutrino mass mechanisms as well as R-parity breaking SUSY mechanism) being active, there are only four different solutions for the lepton violating parameters, provided that they are relatively real. In particular, assuming evidence of the 0nbb-decay of 76Ge, the effective neutrino Majorana mass |m_bb| can be almost uniquely extracted by utilizing other existing constraints (cosmological observations and tritium beta-decay experiments). We also point out the possibility that the non-observation of the 0nbb-decay for some isotopes could be in agreement with a value of |m_bb| in sub eV region. We thus suggest that it is important to have at least two different 0nbb-decay experiments for a given nucleus.
The $2νββ$-decay running sums for $^{76}$Ge and $^{150}$Nd nuclei are calculated within a QRPA approach with account for deformation. A realistic nucleon-nucleon residual interaction based on the Brueckner G matrix (for the Bonn CD force) is used. The influence of different model parameters on the functional behavior of the running sums is studied. It is found that the parameter $g_{pp}$ renormalizing the G matrix in the QRPA particle-particle channel is responsible for a qualitative change in behavior of the running sums at higher excitation energies. For realistic values of $g_{pp}$ a significant negative contribution to the total $2νββ$-decay matrix element is found to come from the energy region of the giant Gamow-Teller resonance. This behavior agrees with the results of other authors.
A self-consistent calculation of nuclear matrix elements of the neutrinoless double beta decays (0nbb) of 76Ge, 82Se, 96Zr, 100Mo, 116Cd, 128Te, 130Te and 130Xe is presented in the framework of the renormalized quasiparticle random phase approximation (RQRPA) and the standard QRPA. The pairing and residual interactions as well as the two-nucleon short-range correlations are for the first time derived from the same modern realistic nucleon-nucleon potentials, namely from charge-dependent Bonn potential (CD-Bonn) and the Argonne V18 potential. In a comparison with the traditional approach of using the Miller-Spencer Jastrow correlations matrix elements for the 0nbb-decay are obtained, which are larger in magnitude. We analyze the differences among various two-nucleon correlations including those of the unitary correlation operator method (UCOM) and quantify the uncertainties in the calculated 0nbb-decay matrix elements.
A method to implement realistic nucleon-nucleon residual interaction (Bonn CD force) based on the Brueckner G-matrix into the Quasiparticle Random Phase Approximation (QRPA) for deformed nuclei is formulated. The two-neutrino double decay for ground state to ground state transitions $^{76}$Ge$ \to ^{76}$Se and $^{150}$Nd $\to ^{150}$Sm is calculated along with the Gamow-Teller strength distributions. The effect of deformation on the observables is studied.
The measured occupancies of valence orbits in $^{76}$Ge and $^{76}$Se are used as a guideline for modification of the effective mean field energies that results in better description of these quantities. With them, in combination with the selfconsitent renormalized quasiparticle random phase approximation (SRQRPA) method that ensures conservation of the mean particle number in the correlated ground state, we show that the resulting $0νββ$ nuclear matrix element for the $^{76}$Ge $\to$ $^{76}$Se transition is reduced by $\sim$25% compared to the previous QRPA value, and therefore the difference between the present approach and the interacting shell model predictions becomes correspondingly smaller. Analogous modification of the mean field energies for the A=82 system also results in a reduction of $0νββ$ matrix element for the $^{82}$Se $\to$ $^{82}$Kr transition, making it also closer to the shell model prediction.
Estimates of nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double beta decay (0nu2beta) based on the quasiparticle random phase approximations (QRPA) are affected by theoretical uncertainties, which can be substantially reduced by fixing the unknown strength parameter g_pp of the residual particle-particle interaction through one experimental constraint - most notably through the two-neutrino double beta decay (2nu2beta) lifetime. However, it has been noted that the g_pp adjustment via 2\nu2βdata may bring QRPA models in disagreement with independent data on electron capture (EC) and single beta decay (beta^-) lifetimes. Actually, in two nuclei of interest for 0nu2beta decay (Mo-100 and Cd-116), for which all such data are available, we show that the disagreement vanishes, provided that the axial vector coupling g_A is treated as a free parameter, with allowance for g_A<1 (``strong quenching''). Three independent lifetime data (2nu2beta, EC, β^-) are then accurately reproduced by means of two free parameters (g_pp, g_A), resulting in an overconstrained parameter space. In addition, the sign of the 2nu2beta matrix element M^2nu is unambiguously selected (M^2nu>0) by the combination of all data. We discuss quantitatively, in each of the two nuclei, these phenomenological constraints and their consequences for QRPA estimates of the 0nu2beta matrix elements and of their uncertainties.
We present the relativistic calculation of the beta-decay of tritium in a hadron model. The elementary particle treatment of the transition 3H -> 3He + e^- + nu_e is performed in analogy with the description of the beta-decay of neutron. The effects of higher order terms of hadron current and nuclear recoil are taken into account in this formalism. The relativistic Kurie function is derived and presented in a simple form suitable for the determination of neutrino masses from the shape of the endpoint spectrum. A connection with the commonly used Kurie function is established.
At the quark level there are basically two types of contributions of R-parity violating SUSY (RPV SUSY) to neutrinoless double beta decay: the short-range contribution involving only heavy virtual superpartners and the long-range one with the virtual squark and neutrino. Hadronization of the effective operators, corresponding to these two types of contributions, may in general involve virtual pions in addition to the close on-mass-shell nucleons. It is known that the short-range contribution is dominated by the pion exchange. In the present paper we show that this is also true for the long-range RPV SUSY contribution and, therefore, the RPV SUSY contributes to the neutrinoless double beta decay dominantly via charged pion exchange between the decaying nucleons.