17–19 Dec 2007
CERN
Europe/Zurich timezone

Double-beta decay and neutrino physics

17 Dec 2007, 15:40
30m
503/1-001 - Council Chamber (CERN)

503/1-001 - Council Chamber

CERN

162
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Speaker

Dr Christina Volpe (IPN Orsay)

Description

In the last decade many spectacular advances have been performed in neutrino physics. Still, crucial questions remain open, in particular the knowledge of the Dirac versus Majorana nature of neutrinos. The most feasible way of knowing the answer to this issue is through the observation of a nuclear process called neutrinoless double-beta decay. Its search presents serious experimental and theoretical challenges, in particular, the precise knowledge of the nuclear matrix elements determining the half-lives. In this talk, we will review the status in this field and emphasize the difficulties as well as the crucial role played by nuclear physics. We will discuss that beta-decay, muon capture and charge-exchange studies offer important constraints to the neutrinoless half-life predictions. We will conclude discussing the interest of neutrino-nucleus interaction studies.

Primary author

Christina Volpe (IPN, Orsay)

Presentation materials