Conference on Neutrino and Nuclear Physics 2017, CNNP 2017, Catania, İtalya, 15 - 21 Ekim 2017, cilt.1056
The NUMEN project proposes to study heavy-ion induced Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions with the final goal to get information on the nuclear matrix elements for neutrinoless double beta (0v beta beta) decay. The knowledge of the nuclear matrix elements is crucial to infer the neutrino average masses from the possible measurement of the half-life of 0v beta beta decay. DCE reactions and 0v beta beta decay present some similarities, the initial and final-state wave functions are the same and the transition operators are similar. The experimental measurements of DCE reactions induced by heavy ions present a number of challenging aspects, since they are characterized by very low cross sections.