Falsifying Baryogenesis with Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay

TL;DR

The paper explores how observing neutrinoless double beta decay could falsify popular baryogenesis models by linking lepton number violation at different energy scales and discussing implications for primordial baryon asymmetry.

Contribution

It provides a novel analysis connecting high-energy baryogenesis constraints with low-energy neutrinoless double beta decay observations, including effective field and UV-complete models.

Findings

Observation of non-standard neutrinoless double beta decay would exclude many baryogenesis models.

Lepton number violation at low energies can wash out primordial baryon asymmetry.

The analysis extends to UV-complete models beyond effective field theory.

Abstract

We discuss the relation between lepton number violation at high and low energies, particularly, the constraints on baryogenesis models, which would be implied by an observation of neutrinoless double beta decay. The primordial baryon asymmetry can be washed out by effective lepton number violating operators triggering neutrinoless double beta decay in combination with sphaleron processes. A generic conclusion is that popular models of baryogenesis are excluded if a non-standard mechanism of neutrinoless double beta decay, i.e., other than the standard light neutrino exchange, is observed. Apart from the effective field approach, we also outline the possible extension of our arguments to a general UV-completed model.