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arXiv · 2408.03373

Neutrinoless $ββ$ decay nuclear matrix elements complete up to N$^2$LO in heavy nuclei

Daniel Castillo·Lotta Jokiniemi·Pablo Soriano·Javier Menéndez
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Abstract

We evaluate all nuclear matrix elements (NMEs) up to next-to-next-to leading order (N$^2$LO) in chiral effective field theory ($χ$EFT) for the neutrinoless double-beta ($0νββ$) decay of the nuclei most relevant for experiments, including $^{76}$Ge, $^{100}$Mo, and $^{136}$Xe. We use the proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation (pnQRPA) and the nuclear shell model to calculate the N$^2$LO NMEs from very low-momentum (ultrasoft) neutrinos and from loop diagrams usually neglected in $0νββ$ studies. Our results indicate that the overall N$^2$LO contribution is centered around $-(5$-$10)\%$ for the shell model and $+(10$-$15)\%$ for the pnQRPA, with sizable uncertainties due to the scale dependence of the ultrasoft NMEs and the short-range nature of the loop NMEs. The sign discrepancy between many-body methods is common to all studied nuclei and points to the different behaviour of the intermediate states of the $0νββ$ decay. Within uncertainties, our results for the ultrasoft NME are of similar size as contributions usually referred to as ``beyond the closure approximation''.

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Daniel Castillo, Lotta Jokiniemi, Pablo Soriano, Javier Menéndez. 2025-08-21. Neutrinoless $ββ$ decay nuclear matrix elements complete up to N$^2$LO in heavy nuclei. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2024.139181

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