Published March 1, 2009 | Version v1
Report

Are neutrinos their own antiparticles?

Description

We explain the relationship between Majorana neutrinos, which are their own antiparticles, and Majorana neutrino masses. We point out that Majorana masses would make the neutrinos very distinctive particles, and explain why many theorists strongly suspect that neutrinos do have Majorana masses. The promising approach to confirming this suspicion is to seek neutrinoless double beta decay. We introduce a toy model that illustrates why this decay requires nonzero neutrino masses, even when there are both right-handed and left-handed weak currents

Availability note (English)

Available from http://lss.fnal.gov/cgi-bin/find_paper.pl?conf-09-058.pdf; PURL: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/948879-kmqybY/

Additional details

Publishing Information

Imprint Pagination
8 p.
Report number
FERMILAB-CONF--09-058-T

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
United States
INIS RN
40051753
Subject category
S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS;
Resource subtype / Literary indicator
Non-conventional Literature
Descriptors DEI
ANTIPARTICLES; DOUBLE BETA DECAY; NEUTRINOS; WEAK INTERACTIONS; WEAK NEUTRAL CURRENTS
Descriptors DEC
ALGEBRAIC CURRENTS; ANTIMATTER; BASIC INTERACTIONS; BETA DECAY; BETA-MINUS DECAY; CURRENTS; DECAY; ELEMENTARY PARTICLES; FERMIONS; INTERACTIONS; LEPTONS; MASSLESS PARTICLES; MATTER; NEUTRAL CURRENTS; NUCLEAR DECAY

Optional Information

Contract/Grant/Project number
arXiv eprint number arXiv:0903.0899; AC02-76CH03000
Notes
Submitted to Journal of Physics Conference Series
Funding organization
US Department of Energy (United States)