V series of Majorana Lectures - Francesco Iachello - Double beta decay and neutrino masses

14 Mar 2016, 14:00 → 16 Mar 2016, 12:30 Europe/Rome

Aula Caianello (Dipartimento di Fisica Ettore Pancini)

 Francesco Iachello

(J.W. Gibbs Professor of Physics, Yale University - USA)
 

"Double beta decay and neutrino masses"

 

Recent experiments indicate that neutrinos have a nonzero mass. A direct measurement of the average neutrino mass can be obtained from the observation of neutrinoless double β decay, a process in which a nucleus X decays into a nucleus Y with the emission of two electrons (or positrons). In 1937, Majorana suggested that neutral particles could be their own antiparticles. Neutrinoless double β decay can only occur if the neutrino is a Majorana particle. Several experiments are under way in an attempt to observe neutrinoless double β decay.

Poster Majorana2016.pdf

Slides

• iachello-majorana_(2016)-lecture_1.pdf
• iachello-majorana_(2016)-lecture_2.pdf
• iachello-majorana_(2016)-lecture_3.pdf

Video

• Video_Lecture_1
• Video_Lecture_2
• Video_Lecture_3

Monday 14 March

1 Theory of double beta decay

The theory of double β decay, both with and without the emission of neutrinos, will be briefly reviewed

Speaker: Prof. Francesco Iachello (J.W. Gibbs Professor of Physics, Yale University - USA)

Tuesday 15 March

2 Nuclear matrix elements for double beta decay

Recent results in the calculation of the nuclear matrix elements needed for the determination of the average neutrino mass will be presented.

Speaker: Prof. Francesco Iachello (J.W. Gibbs Professor of Physics, Yale University - USA)

Wednesday 16 March

3 Current limits on neutrino masses

The nuclear matrix elements will be combined with phase space factors to make predictions for half-lives and obtain limits on the average neutrino mass from current experiments. Other scenarios, in addition to the standard 3- neutrino scenario, will also be considered including the emission of a scalar particle, called the Majoron, in honor of Majorana, and the presence of sterile neutrinos, that is neutrinos with no standard model interactions, as suggested in 1957 by Pontecorvo.

Speaker: Prof. Francesco Iachello (J.W. Gibbs Professor of Physics, Yale University - USA)