2017/11/30 by Marcela González, Martin Hirsch, M. Hirsch +2
Physics and Astronomy · #BETA (programming language) #Coupling constant #Double beta decay #Energy (signal processing) #Extrapolation #Mathematical physics #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Perturbation theory (quantum mechanics) #Perturbative QCD #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Scalar (mathematics) #Statistics #Tensor (intrinsic definition) #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.97.115005
published as Phys. Rev. D 97, 115005 (2018) · 7 pages, 4 figures
openalex created_date 2017/12/04 · openalex publication_date 2018/06/05 · arxiv created 2018/06/26 · arxiv updated 2018/06/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
There is a common belief that the main uncertainties in the theoretical analysis of neutrinoless double beta (0\ensuremathν\ensuremathβ\ensuremathβ) decay originate from the nuclear matrix elements. Here, we uncover another previously overlooked source of potentially large uncertainties stemming from nonperturbative QCD effects. Recently perturbative QCD corrections have been calculated for all dimension 6 and 9 effective operators describing 0\ensuremathν\ensuremathβ\ensuremathβ-decay and their importance for a reliable treatment of 0\ensuremathν\ensuremathβ\ensuremathβ-decay has been demonstrated. However, these perturbative results are valid at energy scales above \ensuremath∼1 GeV, while the typical 0\ensuremathν\ensuremathβ\ensuremathβ scale is about \ensuremath∼100 MeV. In view of this fact we examine the possibility of extrapolating the perturbative results towards sub-GeV nonperturbative scales on the basis of the QCD coupling constant ``freezing'' behavior using background perturbation theory. Our analysis suggests that such an infrared extrapolation does modify the perturbative results for both short-range and long-range mechanisms of 0\ensuremathν\ensuremathβ\ensuremathβ-decay in general only moderately. We also discuss that the tensor\ensuremath\bigotimestensor effective operator cannot appear alone in the low energy limit of any renormalizable high-scale model and then demonstrate that all five linearly independent combinations of the scalar and tensor operators, which can appear in renormalizable models, are infrared stable.