Abstract
We have studied the constraints imposed by the results of neutrino oscillation experiments on the effective Majorana mass that characterizes the contribution of Majorana neutrino masses to the matrix element of neutrinoless double-beta decay. We have shown that in a general scheme with three Majorana neutrinos and a hierarchy of neutrino masses (which corresponds to the standard seesaw mechanism) the results of neutrino oscillation experiments imply rather strong constraints on the parameter From the results of the first reactor long-baseline experiment CHOOZ and the Bugey experiment it follows that if is the largest mass-squared difference). Hence, we conclude that the observation of neutrinoless double-beta decay with a probability that corresponds to would be a signal for a nonhierarchical neutrino mass spectrum and/or nonstandard mechanisms of lepton number violation.
- Received 21 November 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.57.6981
©1998 American Physical Society