G.H. Sargsyan¹, K.D. Launey¹, A. Mercenne², T. Dytrych^1,3, J.P. Draayer^1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA
²Center for Theoretical Physics, Sloane Physics Laboratory, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA
³Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 250 68 Řež, Czech Republic

Abstract. The ab initio methods in nuclear physics play a major role due to their use of realistic internucleon interactions that grant them predictive capabilities. One of these models — the symmetry-adapted no-core shell model (SA-NCSM) — is capable of reaching the medium-mass region of the chart of the nuclides, by exploiting the emergent symmetries of nuclei, and is therefore well-suited for studying collective correlations and beta decay modes. We apply the SA-NCSM to calculate beta-decay observables essential to probe physics beyond the Standard Model. Our calculations of higher-order recoil terms in the beta decay of ⁸Li help to significantly reduce the uncertainties in high-precision experiments that study the vector minus axial vector (V–A) structure of the weak interaction. Furthermore, we calculate neutrinoless double beta decay matrix elements important for determining whether the neutrino is its own antiparticle.

doi: https://doi.org/10.55318/bgjp.2022.49.1.047

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