Neutrinoless double beta decay in effective field theory

Neutrinoless double beta decay (NLDBD) is the most sensitive probe of lepton-number violation. Its discovery would be a clear signal of physics beyond the Standard Model, confirm the Majorana nature of neutrinos, and provide insight into scenarios of baryogenesis through leptogenesis. In this talk, I will outline how lepton-number violation can be described in an effective-field-theory framework and discuss the required steps to express the NLDBD half-life in terms of effective interactions. One of the more involved steps is the matching onto Chiral Effective Theory. I will show that consistent renormalization requires the inclusion of a new contact interaction at leading order and discuss ways to estimate the impact of this contact term. Finally, I will illustrate how this framework can be extended to include the effects of light sterile neutrinos.