NEUTRINOLESS DOUBLE BETA DECAY - AND THE NEUTRINO MASS MATRIX

Double beta decay is indispensable to solve the question of the neutrino mass matrix together with ν oscillation experiments. Recent analysis of the most sensitive experiment since eight years - the HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW experiment in Gran-Sasso - yields evidence for the neutrinoless decay mode. This result is the first evidence for lepton number violation and proves the neutrino to be a Majorana particle. We give the present status of the analysis in these Proceedings. It excludes several of the neutrino mass scenarios allowed from present neutrino oscillation experiments - essentially only degenerate and partially degenerate mass scenarios survive. This result allows neutrinos to still play an important role as dark matter in the Universe. To improve the present result, considerably enlarged experiments are required, such as GENIUS. A GENIUS Test Facility has just been funded and will come into operation by end of 2002.