Shell model analysis of competing mechanism to the double-beta decay of $^{48}$Ca

Abstract

Background: Neutrinoless double beta decay, if observed, would reveal physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, namely it would prove that neutrinos are Majoran fermions and that the lepton number is not conserved. Purpose: The analysis of the results of neutrinoless double beta decay observations requires an accurate knowledge of several nuclear matrix elements (NME) for different mechanism that may contribute to the decay. We provide a complete analysis of these NME for the decay of the ground state (g.s.) of $^{48}$Ca to the g.s. $0^+_1$ and first excited $0^+_2$ state of $^{48}$Ti. Method: For the analysis we used the nuclear shell model with effective two-body interactions that were fine-tuned to describe the low-energy spectroscopy of $pf$-shell nuclei. We checked our model by calculating the two-neutrino transition probability to the g.s. of $^{48}$Ti. We also make predictions for the transition to the first excited $0^+_2$ state of $^{48}$Ti. Results: We present results for all NME relevant for the neutrinoless transitions to the $0^+_1$ and $0^+_2$ states, and using the lower experimental limit for the g.s. to g.s. half-life we extract upper limits for the neutrino physics parameters. Conclusions: We provide accurate NME for the two-neutrino and neutrinoless double beta decay transitions in A=48 system, which can be further used to analyze the experimental results of double beta decay experiments when they become available.