Neutrino-less double-beta decays (0νββ) with the mass sensitivities of the solar and atmospheric ν masses are of great interest for studying the Majorana nature of neutrinos and the absolute mass spectrum as suggested by recent ν oscillation experiments. Here nuclear responses (nuclear matrix elements) for 0νββ are crucial. They are well studied experimentally by using charge-exchange, photo-nuclear and neutrino reactions. MOON(Mo Observatory Of Neutrinos) is a high sensitivity 0νββ experiment with the mass sensitivity of an order of 30 meV. Experimental studies of the nuclear responses and the present status of MOON are briefly discussed.
Neutrino-less ββ decays and Majorana neutrino massesDouble beta decays are of great interest from viewpoints of particle and astronuclear physics. They have been extensively discussed, as given in recent review papers and references therein [1, 2, 3]. Double beta decays with two ν's, which conserve the lepton number, are within the standard model(SM), while those without ν violate the lepton number conservation law by ∆L = 2 and thus are beyond SM. The transition rates for two-neutrino (2νββ) and neutrino-less (0νββ) decays are given aswhere G 2ν and M 2ν are the phase space factor and the nuclear matrix element for 2νββ, and G 0ν and M 0ν are those for 0νββ. m ν is the effective Majorana ν-mass term. The 0νββ is caused also by the right-handed weak current, the ν-Majoron coupling, the ν-SUSY coupling, and others. Here discussions are restricted on 0νββ due to the light ν-mass. The effective mass term is written aswhere m i , u ei , and φ i are the mass eigen value, the coefficient for the electron neutrino, and the Majorana phase, respectively, with i = 1, 2, 3. * ) Presented by the author at the Workshop on calculation of double-beta-decay matrix elements (MEDEX'05), Corfu, Greece, September 26-29, 2005.