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In particle physics, majorons (named after Ettore Majorana) are a hypothetical type of Goldstone boson that are conjectured to mediate the neutrino mass violation of lepton number or B − L in certain high energy collisions such as

e
 + 
e
 → 
W
 + 
W
 + 
J

Where two electrons collide to form two W bosons and the majoron J. The U(1)_B–L symmetry is assumed to be global so that the majoron is not "eaten up" by the gauge boson and spontaneously broken. Majorons were originally formulated in four dimensions by Y. Chikashige, R. N. Mohapatra and R. D. Peccei to understand neutrino masses by the seesaw mechanism and are being searched for in the neutrino-less double beta decay process. The name majoron was suggested by Graciela Gelmini as a derivative of the last name Majorana with the suffix -on typical of particle names like electron, proton, neutron, etc. There are theoretical extensions of this idea into supersymmetric theories and theories involving extra compactified dimensions. By propagating through the extra spatial dimensions the detectable number of majoron creation events vary accordingly. Mathematically, majorons may be modeled by allowing them to propagate through a material while all other Standard Model forces are fixed to an orbifold point.

Searches

Experiments studying double beta decay have set limits on decay modes that emit majorons.

NEMO has observed a variety of elements. EXO and Kamland-Zen have set half-life limits for majoron decays in xenon.

References

1. Lattanzi, M. (2008). "Decaying Majoron Dark Matter and Neutrino Masses". AIP Conference Proceedings. 966 (1): 163–169. arXiv:0802.3155. Bibcode:2008AIPC..966..163L. doi:10.1063/1.2836988. S2CID 14555177.
2. Arnold, R.; Augier, C.; Baker, J. D.; Barabash, A. S.; Basharina-Freshville, A.; Blondel, S.; et al. (12 June 2014). "Search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of ... with the NEMO-3 detector". Physical Review D. 89 (11): 111101. arXiv:1311.5695. Bibcode:2014PhRvD..89k1101A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.89.111101. S2CID 9380926.
3. Albert, J. B.; Auty, D. J.; Barbeau, P. S.; Beauchamp, E.; Beck, D.; Belov, V.; et al. (10 November 2014). "Search for Majoron-emitting modes of double-beta decay of ... with EXO-200". Physical Review D. 90 (9): 092004. arXiv:1409.6829. Bibcode:2014PhRvD..90i2004A. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.90.092004. S2CID 10715318.
4. Gando, A.; Gando, Y.; Hanakago, H.; Ikeda, H.; Inoue, K.; Kato, R.; et al. (6 August 2012). "Limits on Majoron-emitting double- decays of ... Xe in the KamLAND-Zen experiment". Physical Review C. 86 (2): 021601. arXiv:1205.6372. Bibcode:2012PhRvC..86b1601G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.86.021601. S2CID 118539839.

Further reading

• Balysh, A.; et al. (1996). "Bounds on new Majoron models from the Heidelberg-Moscow experiment". Physical Review D. 54 (5): 3641–3644. arXiv:nucl-ex/9511001. Bibcode:1996PhRvD..54.3641G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.54.3641. PMID 10021037. S2CID 31618565.
• Mohapatra, R.N.; Pérez-Lorenzana, A.; de S. Pires, C.A. (2000). "Neutrino mass, bulk majoron and neutrinoless double beta decay". Physics Letters B. 491 (1–2): 143–147. arXiv:hep-ph/0008158. Bibcode:2000PhLB..491..143M. doi:10.1016/S0370-2693(00)01031-5. S2CID 119527305.
• Carone, C.D.; Conroy, J.M.; Kwee, H.J. (2002). "Bulk majorons at colliders". Physics Letters B. 538 (1–2): 115–120. arXiv:hep-ph/0204045. Bibcode:2002PhLB..538..115C. doi:10.1016/S0370-2693(02)01943-3. S2CID 119099210.
• Frampton, P.H.; Oh, M.C.; Yoshikawa, T. (2002). "Majoron mass zeros from Higgs triplet vacuum expectation values without a Majoron problem". Physical Review D. 66 (3): 033007. arXiv:hep-ph/0204273. Bibcode:2002PhRvD..66c3007F. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.66.033007. S2CID 119358575.
• Grossman, Y.; Haber, H.E. (2003). "The would-be Majoron in R-parity-violating supersymmetry". Physical Review D. 67 (3): 036002. arXiv:hep-ph/0210273. Bibcode:2003PhRvD..67c6002G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.67.036002. S2CID 35069267.
• de S. Pires, C.A.; Rodrigues da Silva, P.S. (2004). "Spontaneous breaking of the lepton number and invisible majoron in a 3-3-1 model". European Physical Journal C. 36 (3): 397–403. arXiv:hep-ph/0307253. Bibcode:2004EPJC...36..397D. doi:10.1140/epjc/s2004-01949-3. S2CID 195317240.

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