Heavy sterile neutrinos and neutrinoless double beta decay

We investigate the possibility of producing neutrinoless double beta decay without having an electron neutrino with a mass in the vicinity of 1 eV. We do so by having a much lighter electron neutrino mix with a much heavier (m ⪆ 1 GeV) sterile neutrino. We study the constraints on the masses and mixings of such heavy sterile neutrinos from existing laboratory, astrophysical and cosmological information, and discuss the properties it would …