The Nuclear and Particle Physics of Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

Explore the fascinating world of neutrinoless double beta decay in this 38-minute APS Physics plenary session talk by Wick Haxton from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Delve into the connections between this rare second-order weak process and the charge conjugation properties of neutrinos, including the possibility of both Dirac and Majorana masses explaining the unusual scale of neutrino masses. Learn about the significant progress made in the field over the past two decades and the ongoing efforts to develop highly sensitive detectors for next-generation experiments. Gain insights into nuclear pairing force, lepton number conservation, the weak interaction, and the standard model as they relate to neutrinoless double beta decay. Discover the challenges and potential breakthroughs in nuclear and particle physics as researchers strive to probe Majorana masses at unprecedented levels of sensitivity.