Impact of CP phases on neutrinoless double beta decay

Abstract

We highlight in a model independent way the dependence of the effective Majorana mass parameter, relevant for neutrinoless double beta decay, on the CP phases of the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata matrix, using the most recent neutrino data including the cosmological Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe measurement. We perform our analysis with three active neutrino flavors in the context of three kinds of mass spectra: quasidegenerate, normal hierarchical, and inverted hierarchical. If a neutrinoless double beta decay experiment records a positive signal, then assuming that Majorana masses of light neutrinos are responsible for it, we show how it might be possible to discriminate between the three kinds of spectra.