Double Beta Decay Experiments: Beginning of a New Era.

Interest in neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) has seen a significant renewal in the recent 10 years after evidence for neutrino oscillations was obtained from the results of atmospheric, solar, reactor, and accelerator neutrino experiments. These results are impressive proof that neutrinos have a nonzero mass. The detection and study of 0νββ decay may clarify the following problems of neutrino physics: (i) lepton number non-conservation, (ii) neutrino nature: whether the neutrino is a Dirac or a Majorana particle, (iii) absolute neutrino mass scale, (iv) the type of neutrino mass hierarchy (normal, inverted, or quasidegenerate), and (v) CP violation in the lepton sector (measurement of the Majorana CP-violating phases). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]