The present knowledge of particle physics is based on the Standard Model (SM), which is an acknowledged theory of fundamental interactions and all known elementary particles. However, recent solar-neutrino experiments have proved that neutrinos have a non-zero mass, which conflicts with the SM as we know it. This signifies that the SM's perception of neutrinos is not accurate, making the search of new physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) most intriguing. Currently, the most practical way to access the yet-to-be-determined properties of neutrinos is observing neutrinoless double-beta (0νββ) decay.

In this seminar, I will introduce my dissertation research in which I studied probing 0νββ decay by exploiting available data on charge-exchange reactions and ordinary muon capture. I studied the strength distributions of these processes in the isobaric triplets corresponding to ββ-decay of the key 0νββ-decay candidates in the pnQRPA framework. By studying these strength distributions we can not only probe the intermediate states 0νββ decay (see the figure), but also eventually shed light on the unknown effective values of the couplings in wide excitation-energy and momentum-exchange regions relevant for 0νββ decay.

I will also cover some future directions for my postdoctoral research period at the University of Barcelona. The main aim is to extend the recent large-scale nuclear shell-model calculations of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering to inelastic scattering, heading up to high energies utilising pnQRPA.

[The dissertation study has been published in the University of Jyväskylä's dissertation series JYU Dissertations, number 288, Jyväskylä 2020. ISBN 978-951-39-8304-8 (PDF), URN: ISBN: 978-951-39-8304-8, ISSN 2489-9003. The publication is available in the JYX publication archive at: https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/71822]