New Leading Contribution to Neutrinoless Double-<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>β</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math> Decay

Within the framework of chiral effective field theory, we discuss the leading contributions to the neutrinoless double-beta decay transition operator induced by light Majorana neutrinos. Based on renormalization arguments in both dimensional regularization with minimal subtraction and a coordinate-space cutoff scheme, we show the need to introduce a leading-order short-range operator, missing in all current calculations. We discuss strategies to determine the finite part of the short-range coupling by matching to lattice QCD or by relating it via chiral symmetry to isospin-breaking observables in the two-nucleon sector. Finally, we speculate on the impact of this new contribution on nuclear matrix elements of relevance to experiment.