Status and prospects of searches for neutrinoless double beta decay

TL;DR

This paper reviews the current status and future prospects of experimental searches for neutrinoless double beta decay, highlighting recent results, ongoing experiments, and upcoming sensitivities in this field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent experimental efforts, results, and future sensitivities in the search for neutrinoless double beta decay.

Findings

First limits reported for $^{136}$Xe decay half-life.

Multiple experiments are actively taking data.

Upcoming results will test previous claims of decay observation.

Abstract

The simultaneous beta decay of two neutrons in a nucleus without the emission of neutrinos (called neutrinoless double beta decay) is a lepton number violating process which is not allowed in the Standard Model of particle physics. More than a dozen experiments using different candidate isotopes and a variety of detection techniques are searching for this decay. Some (EXO-200, Kamland-Zen, GERDA) started to take data recently. EXO and Kamland-Zen have reported first limits of the half life $T_{1/2}^{0\nu}$ for $^{136}$Xe. After a decade of little progress in this field, many new results will soon scrutinize the claim from part of the Heidelberg-Moscow collaboration to have observed this decay. The sensitivities of the different proposals are reviewed.