Angular Distributions of Emitted Electrons in the Two-Neutrino <i>ββ</i> Decay

The two-neutrino double-beta decay (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>2</mn><mi>ν</mi><mi>β</mi><mi>β</mi></mrow></semantics>&l...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ovidiu Niţescu, Rastislav Dvornický, Sabin Stoica, Fedor Šimkovic
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
Series:Universe
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1997/7/5/147
Description
Summary:The two-neutrino double-beta decay (<inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>2</mn><mi>ν</mi><mi>β</mi><mi>β</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>-decay) process is attracting more and more attention of the physics community due to its potential to explain nuclear structure aspects of involved atomic nuclei and to constrain new (beyond the Standard model) physics scenarios. Topics of interest are energy and angular distributions of the emitted electrons, which might allow the deduction of valuable information about fundamental properties and interactions of neutrinos once a new generation of the double-beta decay experiments will be realized. These tasks require an improved theoretical description of the <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>2</mn><mi>ν</mi><mi>β</mi><mi>β</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>-decay differential decay rates, which is presented. The dependence of the denominators in nuclear matrix elements on lepton energies is taken into account via the Taylor expansion. Both the Fermi and Gamow-Teller matrix elements are considered. For nuclei of experimental interest, relevant phase-space factors are calculated by using exact Dirac wave functions with finite nuclear size and electron screening. The uncertainty of the angular correlation factor on nuclear structure parameters is discussed. It is emphasized that the effective axial-vector coupling constant <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msubsup><mi>g</mi><mi>A</mi><mi>eff</mi></msubsup></semantics></math></inline-formula> can be determined more reliably by accurately measuring the angular correlation factor.
ISSN:2218-1997