The contribution of light Majorana neutrinos to neutrinoless double beta decay and cosmology

Abstract

The current status of the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) search is briefly summarized. The newest knowledge on oscillation parameters (2016 global analysis) and the recent theoretical developments allow us to infer updated expectations and uncertainties on the experimental investigations of 0νββ. In addition, the very stringent bounds on the sum of the active neutrino masses Σ by post-Planck 2015 cosmological analyses have recently become very relevant for the 0νββ search. The values of the Majorana effective mass is smaller than 100 meV at 1σ C.L. Such results motivate further cosmological investigations of neutrino masses and have a great impact for the interpretation of future generations of 0νββ experiments.