Emanuele Mereghetti, Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Abstract: The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics is an extremely successful theory, which has passed a variety of stringent tests at both high- and low-energy. On the other hand, the SM is not the final theory of nature, as it cannot explain the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe, it does not have a dark matter candidate and, in its minimal version, does not accommodate neutrino masses. A vibrant physics program is underway, searching for manifestations of physics beyond the SM (BSM) in different regimes, from highenergy collisions at the Large Hadron Collider to low-energy precision experiments at the intensity frontier. In this talk I will discuss the role that effective field theories (EFTs) play in the multi-scale problem of identifying BSM physics. Focusing on neutrinoless double beta decay (0nbb), I will discuss how the Standard Model EFT allows a very general organization of sources of lepton number violation (LNV), without reliance on specific BSM models. I will then review the construction of the 0nbb transition operator, for standard and non-standard LNV mechanisms, and discuss the critical role of nuclear EFTs in taming the large uncertainties in the 0nbb half-lives, and thus in the robust extraction of fundamental LNV parameters.
** Refreshments served from 2:45pm – 3:00pm in PAS 218. Thank you. **
This event will be held in PAS 201 and also presented via Zoom (link below). Zoom password: PhysColl