1063-7788/00/6307- $20.

00 2000 MAIK Nauka/Interperiodica 1177

Physics of Atomic Nuclei, Vol. 63, No. 7, 2000, pp. 11771181. From Yadernaya Fizika, Vol. 63, No. 7, 2000, pp. 12521256.
Original English Text Copyright 2000 by Pantis, imkovic. S
^

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, there has been considerable interest in
the study of nuclear double-beta decay, both theoretically
and experimentally. Recent review articles [1, 2] provide
new developments in this eld. Of particular interest is
the neutrinoless double-beta decay (0

decay), which
involves the emission of two electrons and no neutrinos,
and the two-neutrino double-beta decay (2

decay) in
which two electrons and two antineutrinos are emitted.
The 0

decay, which has not yet been observed, vio-
lates the lepton-number conservation and has been pre-
dicted in some theories beyond the Standard Model [1, 2].
In order to deduce the lepton-number-violating parame-
ters of interest from the experimental lower limits on the
half-life of 0

decay, the corresponding nuclear transi-
tion should be calculated with good accuracy.
The Grand Unied Theories and supersymmetric
models offer a variety of mechanisms for the 0

-
decay process. So far, most attention is paid to the light
Majorana neutrino mass mechanism, which allows us
to deduce an important limit on the effective Majorana
neutrino mass parameter

. In the calculations of the
corresponding nuclear transition so far, only the axial-
vector and the vector parts of the nucleon current have
been considered in detail, while an attempt has been
made to estimate weak magnetism [3]. While the weak
magnetism has been shown to be small, the induced
pseudoscalar term is expected to play an important role.
In fact, we nd that such corrections are of the order

q

2

/(

q

2

+ ); i.e. they are important if the average m

2

momentum

of the exchanged neutrino cannot be
neglected in front of the pion mass. In the case of 0

decay, the neutrino is emitted by one nucleon and
absorbed by another. The average momentum

of the
exchanged neutrino is expected to be 100 MeV for a
mean nucleonnucleon separation of 2 fm. The situa-
tion is even clearer in the case of heavy Majorana neu-
trino exchange, as was shown in [4]. There, the mean
internucleon distance is considerably smaller, and the
average momentum

should be much larger. Thus,
such large values of average momentum render it nec-
essary to go beyond the usual approximation of the
nucleon current at least for the 0

-decay matrix ele-
ment for which in general so far only terms of axial-
vector and vector contributions have been considered.
It is the motivation of this work to include induced
current terms of the nuclear current in our calculations.
In addition, we shall use the protonneutron renormal-
ized quasiparticle random-phase approximation (

pn

-
RQRPA), which incorporates renormalization effects
due to Pauli principle corrections. In this way we
expect to obtain more reliable nuclear matrix elements.
2. THEORY
The Majorana neutrino mass mechanism of 0

decay has been discussed in many papers, see, for
example, the recent review articles [1, 2, 5] and refer-
ences cited there. We shall give here only some formu-
las necessary for this work. The effective beta-decay
Hamiltonian is of the form,

(1)

G
F
2
------- e

1
5
( )
eL
[ ]J
L

h.c., + =

NEW PHYSICS, NUCLEAR AND NUCLEON STRUCTURE
IN RARE PROCESSES

The Effect of Weak Magnetism and Induced Pseudoscalar
Coupling in Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay*

G. Pantis and F. imkovic

1)

Department of Physics, University of Ioannina, Greece

Abstract

In calculating the amplitude of the Majorana neutrinomass mechanism of neutrinoless double-beta
decay (0

-decay), several approximations of the nucleon current have been done. For example, effects from
induced current such as weak magnetism and pseudoscalar coupling have been neglected. We shall show in this
work that, although such terms do not contribute signicantly to the 2

-decay amplitude, they are important
in the case of 0

decay. Performing calculations within the renormalized quasiparticle random phase approx-
imation (

pn

-RQRPA) for all nuclei undergoing double-beta decay in the region

A

= 76 to

A

= 150, we have
found that these additional contributions of the nucleon current reduce considerably the matrix elements in all
cases for the light neutrino as well as for the heavy neutrino mass. In the light-neutrino mass, we nd reductions
up to thirty percent, while in the heavy-neutrino mass, up to almost a factor of ve. These reductions make the
limits on the lepton-number-violating parameters

and

N

less stringent.

2000 MAIK Nauka/Interperi-
odica.
S
^

* This article was submitted by the authors in English.

1)

Department of Nuclear Physics, Comenius University, Brat-
islava, Slovakia.

1178

PHYSICS OF ATOMIC NUCLEI



Vol. 63



No. 7



2000

PANTIS, IMKOVIC S
^

where

e

and

eL

are eld operators representing the
electron and the left-handed electron neutrino, respec-
tively. We suppose that neutrino mixing does take place
according to

(2)

where

k

(

N

k

) are elds of light (heavy) Majorana neu-
trinos with masses

m

k

(

m

k

1 MeV) and

M

k

(

M

k

1 GeV), respectively, and is a unitary mixing
matrix. In the rst and second terms on the r.h.s. of (2),
the summation is only over light and heavy neutrinos,
respectively. The elds

k

and

N

k

satisfy the Majorana
condition:

k

=

C

,

N

k

=

C

, where

C

denotes
the charge conjugation and

, are phase factors.
Within the impulse approximation, the nuclear cur-
rent in (1) expressed with nucleon elds

takes the
form

(3)

where

m

p

is the nucleon mass,

q

= (

p



p

')

is the
momentum transferred from hadrons to leptons (

p

and

p

' are four momenta of neutron and proton, respec-
tively), and

= (

i

/2)[

]. The functions

g

V

(

q

2

),

g

M

(

q

2

),

g

A

(

q

2

), and

g

P

(

q

2

) are real functions of the
Lorentz scalar

q

2

.
In previous studies of the neutrino mass mechanism
of 0

decay, the terms proportional to

g

M

(

q

2

) and

g
P
(q
2
) of the nucleon current in (3) have been
neglected, and the q
2
dependence of g
V
(q
2
) and g
A
(q
2
)
was taken to be of dipole shape (1 q
2
/
2
)
2
with =
0.85 GeV. In this work, we shall use the following
parametrization of the form factors:
(4)
where
V
has been determined by Dumbrajs et al. [6]
and
A
is the best t of the axial-vector form factor for the
neutrino reaction

p
+
n by Amaldi et al. [7]. The
vector, axial-vector, and weak-magnetism coupling
constants have the following values: g
V
= 1, g
A
= 1.254,

eL
U
ek
L

kL
U
ek
L
N
kL
,
k heavy =

+
k light =

=
U
ek
L

k
T

k N
k
T

J
L

J
L

+
g
V
q
2
( )

g
M
q
2
( )
i

2m
p
----------q

=
--- g
A
q
2
( )

5
g
P
q
2
( )q

5
+ ,
g
V
q
2
( )
g
V
1
q
2

V
2
------
,

_
2
-----------------------, g
M
q
2
( )

1
q
2

V
2
------
,

_
2
-----------------------, = =

V
2
0.71 GeV
2
, =
g
A
q
2
( )
g
A
1
q
2

A
2
------
,

_
2
-----------------------,
A
1.086 GeV, = =
(
p

n
) = 3.70. The induced pseudoscalar form factor
is determined by the pion pole, and its form within the
partially conserved axial-vector current hypothesis
(PCAC) is given [5] by
(5)
In the nonrelativistic expansion, the form of the
nucleon current coincides with that in Breit frame, and
we get (k = 1, 2, 3),
(6)
(7)
In the case of 2 decay, the momentum transfer in
the weak nucleon vertex is restricted by the Q value of
the process, which is about a few MeV. It allows us to
neglect safely terms proportional to q in (7). These
terms have been ignored also in the Majorana neutrino
mass mechanism of 0 decay. We shall show in this
work that one should take such terms into account. If
we assume that both outgoing electrons are in the s
1/2
-
wave state and consider only the energetically most
favored transition, we obtain, for the 0-
decay half-life,
(8)
Here, m
e
is the mass of electron, and G
01
is the inte-
grated kinematical factor. Its numerical values can be
found, e.g., in [8, 9]. The lepton-number-violating
parameters of interest m

and
N
take the form
(9)
The nuclear matrix elements entering the half-life
formula of 0-decay process in (8) with an obvious
notation are
(10)
where , , , , and refer to the
vector, weak-magnetism, axial-vector, induced pseudo-
scalar coupling, and the interference of the axial-vector
and induced pseudoscalar coupling interaction, respec-
g
P
q
2
( )
2m
p
g
A
q
2
( )
m

2
q
2

-------------------------- 1
m

A
2
------
,

_
. =
J

x ( )
n
+
g
0
J
0
q
2
( ) g
k
J
n
k
q
2
( ) + [ ] x r
n
( ),
n 1 =
A

=
J
0
q
2
( ) g
V
q
2
( ), =
J
n
q
2
( ) = g
M
q
2
( )i
s
n
q
2m
p
--------------- g
A
q
2
( )s g
P
q
2
( )
q s
n
q ( )
2m
p
---------------------. +
0
i
+
0
f
+
T
1/2
0
[ ]
1
G
01
m

m
e
------------M
m

light

N
M

N
heavy
+
2
. =
m

U
ek
L
( )
2

k
m
k
,
k
light

N
U
ek
L
( )
2

k
m
p
M
k
-------.
k
heavy

=
M
m

N
,
I
M
VV
I
M
MM
I
M
AA
I
M
PP
I
M
AP
I
, + + + + =
I light, heavy, =
M
VV
I
M
MM
I
M
AA
I
M
PP
I
M
AP
I
PHYSICS OF ATOMIC NUCLEI Vol. 63 No. 7 2000
THE EFFECT OF WEAK MAGNETISM 1179
tively. Expressed in relative coordinates and using the
second quantization formalism, they take the form
(11)
with type = VV, MM, AA, PP, AP. The exact form of the
one-body transition densities to excited states J

m
i

and J

m
f
generated from the initial (A, Z) and the nal
(A, Z + 2) ground states and within the pn-
RQRPA can be found together with other details of the
nuclear structure model in [2, 911]. The short-range
M
type
I
1 ( )
j
n
j
p'
J + + +
2 1 + ( )
pnp' n'
J

m
i
m
f

j
p
j
n
J
j
n'
j
p'

' ;

p 1 ( ) p' 2 ( ); f r
12
( )
1
+

2
+
,

type
I
12 ( ) f r
12
( ) n 1 ( ) n' 2 ( ); ,
0
f
+
c
p'
+
c

n'
[ ]
J
J

m
f
J

m
f
J

m
i

J

m
i
c
p
+
c

n
[ ]
J
0
i
+
0
i
+
0
f
+
correlation function f(r) = 1 (1 br
2
) ( =
1.1 fm
2
and b = 0.68 fm
2
) takes into account the short-
range repulsion of the nucleons. Here, (12) repre-
sents the coordinate- and spin-dependent part of the
two body transition operators of the 0-decay
nuclear matrix elements in (11),
(12)
The light-neutrino-exchange potential (r
12
) and
the heavy-neutrino-exchange potential (r
12
)
(K = F, GT, T) are of the following form:
(13)
e
r
2

type
I

type
I
12 ( ) H
typeF
I
r
12
( ) H
typeGT
I
r
12
( )
12
+ =
+ H
typeT
I
r
12
( )S
12
.
H
typeK
light
H
typeK
heavy
H
typeK
light
r
12
( )
=
2
g
A
2
---------
R
r
12
------
qr
12
( ) sin
q E
m
J ( ) E
i
E
f
+ ( )/2 +
---------------------------------------------------------h
typeK
q
2
( ) q, d
0

3
Light Majorana neutrino exchange
2
1
0
1
2
M
VV
M
AA
M
MM
M
PP
M
AP
M
VV
+ M
AA
= 3.60
M
m

= 2.80
120
Heavy Majorana neutrino exchange
80
40
0
40
80
M
VV
M
AA
M
MM
M
PP
M
AP
M
VV
+ M
AA
= 130
M

N
= 33
76
Ge
76
Se + 2e

Fig. 1. Calculated light and heavy neutrino exchange 0-decay nuclear matrix elements for A = 76 and 128 systems. The partial
matrix elements M
VV
, M
AA
, M
MM
, M
PP
, and M
AP
originate from vector, axial-vector, weak-magnetism, induced pseudoscalar cou-
pling, and the interference of the axial-vector and induced pseudoscalar coupling interaction, respectively. and are
0-decay matrix elements associated with m

and
N
lepton-number-violating parameters, respectively.
M
m

N
120
Heavy Majorana neutrino exchange
80
40
0
40
80
M
VV
M
AA
M
MM
M
PP
M
AP
M
VV
+ M
AA
= 137
M

N
= 27
3
2
1
0
1
2
M
VV
M
AA
M
MM
M
PP
M
AP
Light Majorana neutrino exchange
M
VV
+ M
AA
= 2.96
M
m

= 2.17
128
Te
128
Xe + 2e

1180
PHYSICS OF ATOMIC NUCLEI Vol. 63 No. 7 2000
PANTIS, IMKOVIC S
^
with
H
typeK
heavy
r ( ) =
1
m
p
m
e
-------------
2
g
A
2
---------
R
r
12
------ qr
12
( )h
typeK
q
2
( )q sin q d
0

h
VVF
q
2
( ) g
V
2
q
2
( ), h
VVGT
q
2
( ) 0, = =
h
VVT
q
2
( ) 0, =
h
MMF
q
2
( ) 0, h
MMGT
q
2
( )
2
3
---
g
M
2
q
2
( )q
2
4m
p
2
----------------------, = =
h
MMT
q
2
( )
1
3
---
g
M
2
q
2
( )q
2
4m
p
2
----------------------, =
h
AAF
q
2
( ) 0, h
AAGT
q
2
( ) g
A
2
q
2
( ), = =
h
AAT
q
2
( ) 0, =
h
PPF
q
2
( ) 0, h
PPGT
q
2
( )
1
3
---
g
P
2
q
2
( )q
4
4m
p
2
---------------------, = =
Here, E
i
, E
f
, and E
m
(J) are, respectively, the energies of
the initial, nal, and intermediate nuclear state with
angular momentum J, and R = r
0
A
1/3
is the mean
nuclear radius, with r
0
= 1.1 fm.
3. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The nuclear matrix elements for the light and heavy
Majorana neutrino exchange modes for the A = 76 and
128 systems have been calculated by the pn-RQRPA
and are shown in the histogram on Fig. 1. For the light
neutrino exchange the weak magnetism is very small.
The other contributions are signicant. In fact, the vec-
tor and the induced pseudoscalar parts together are
almost equal to the interference term, which, however,
h
PPT
q
2
( ) h
PPGT
q
2
( ), =
h
APF
q
2
( ) 0, h
APGT
q
2
( )
2
3
---
g
A
q
2
( )g
P
q
2
( )q
2
2m
p
-------------------------------------, = =
h
APT
q
2
( ) h
APGT
q
2
( ). =
Fig. 2. Calculated nuclear matrix elements and and sensitivities and for the experimentally interesting
A = 76, 82, 96, 100, 116, 128, 130, 136, and 150 nuclear systems. The black bars show the results for the total interaction, and the
open bars show the results without the induced pseudoscalar and weak-magnetism terms.
M
m

N
3
Nuclear matrix elements
2
1
0
1
2
76
Ge
M
m

Nuclear matrix elements
82
Se
96
Zr
100
Mo
116
Cd
128
Te
136
Xe
150
Nd
240
180
120
60
0
76
Ge
M

N

82
Se
96
Zr
100
Mo
116
Cd
128
Te
136
Xe
150
Nd
130
Te
130
Te
120
90
60
30
0
76
Ge
82
Se
96
Zr
100
Mo
116
Cd
128
Te
136
Xe
150
Nd

N

25
20
15
10
0
76
Ge
82
Se
96
Zr
100
Mo
116
Cd
128
Te
136
Xe
150
Nd

m

Sensitivity to the light Sensitivity to the heavy
neutrino mass signal neutrino mass signal
130
Te
130
Te
PHYSICS OF ATOMIC NUCLEI Vol. 63 No. 7 2000
THE EFFECT OF WEAK MAGNETISM 1181
has opposite sign. The matrix elements with and with-
out the induced current contributions are also shown.
For the A = 76 system, we note a reduction of 22 per-
cent in the case of light neutrino exchange and for the
heavy neutrino exchange a reduction of a factor of 4.
For the A = 128 system, the corresponding reductions
are even larger, 27 percent and almost a factor of 5. The
situation is also similar for the other nuclei as can be
seen from the histogram of Fig. 2, where all nuclei are
presented. We have reductions as high as 35 percent for
the light neutrino mass. For the heavy neutrino mass,
the reductions are much higher. Here, the weak magne-
tism contribution is much stronger and of opposite sign
bringing down the matrix element by factors of 2 to 6.
We have also studied the sensitivity of each nucleus to
the light- and heavy-neutrino mass by introducing sen-
sitivity parameters for a given isotope which depend
only on the corresponding nuclear matrix element and
the kinematical phase-space factor. These parameters
are dened in the following way:
(14)
The numerical values of (Y) and (Y) for all
nuclear systems of interest are also shown in Fig. 2.
Large numerical values of these parameters character-
ize those 0-decay isotopes, which are the most
promising candidates for searching the lepton-number-
violating signal. These sensitivity parameters can be
used as a guide by the experimentalists in planning the
0-decay experiments. Our results show that the A =
150 system is the most sensitive by both the light and
the heavy neutrino exchange. This should be taken into
account together with other microscopic and macro-
scopic factors for building a 0 detector. So far, the
best upper limit on the m

and
N
parameters has been
established by the HeidelbergMoscow
76
Ge experi-
ment ( 1.1 10
25
yr) [12]. We denote these limits
m

best
and , which take the values, m

best
= 0.62
and = 1.0 10
7
.
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4. F. imkovic, G. V. Emov, M. A. Ivanov, and V. E. Lyu-
bovitskij, Z. Phys. A. 341, 193 (1992).
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Y ( ) 10
7
M
m

light
G
01
yr ( ), =

N
Y ( ) 10
6
M
m

heavy
G
01
yr ( ). =

N
T
1/2
0

N
best

N
best
S
^
S
^
S
^
S
^
S
^