NUCLEAR-STRUCTURE EFFECTS ON DOUBLE BETA DECAYS TO 0+ STATES IN 76Ge

Abstract

Neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay of 76 Ge to the ground state and first excited 0+ state in 76 Se is discussed in terms of the associated nuclear matrix elements. The effects arizing from the size of the single-particle model space and the occupancies of the individual orbits are discussed in the framework of the (higher) quasiparticle random-phase approximation with effective, G -matrix-derived nuclear forces. It is found that the orbital occupancies play a role for the size of the nuclear matrix element. Contrary to the ground-state transition the transition to the first excited 0+ state does not depend sensitively on the size of the model space.