Transfer Reactions and Nuclear Matrix Elements for Double Beta Decay

Nuclear matrix elements will be important for extracting insightful knowledge of the universe from the lifetime of neutrinoless double beta decay (0vBB) should it be observed. These matrix elements require approximations to do calculations, and it is important that those approximations be valid. One such approximation is the quasiboson approximation used in the quasiparticle random phase approximation(QRPA). A series of (3He,n) reactions has been carried out at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) to test the validity of QRPA for several 0vBB candidate nuclei. This work will discuss the analysis of 134Xe(3He,n)136Ba, where significant transitions to excited 0⁺ states were not observed, suggesting that the QRPA wave function may appropriately describe 136Ba, the daughter nucleus of the 0vBB decay of 136Xe.