Probing Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay: A Search For Correlations With Sub-Barrier Multi-Nucleon Transfer*

This work analyzes sub-barrier nucleon transfer during heavy ion elastic scattering events and compares them to ββ^+/- decays. It

is postulated that correlations can be found between the transforming nucleon and nucleon transfer using a classical form of the

Hartree Fock method (neck model). Data taken from the Nuclear Data Services (NDS) is used to derive information from β^+/- to

calculate the nuclear matrix element for each decay. By calculating the Q of the decay by means of the Weizsacker Formulation and

comparing to the nuclear matrix element determination of ββ^+/- will be revealed and cross sections for each are calculated. Using

the neck model the cross sections for heavy ion elastic scattering events are calculated, and correlations within the cross sections

between the two may be found.