Neutrinoless double beta decay, solar neutrinos and mass scales

We obtain bounds for the neutrino masses by combining atmospheric and solar neutrino data with the phenomenology of neutrinoless double beta decay where hypothetical values of \ <m > \ are envisaged from future 0v beta beta -experiments. Different solutions for the solar neutrino data are considered. For the large-mixing-an-le solution, a bound \ <m > \ less than or equal to 0.01 eV would strongly disfavour an inverted hierarchy of the neutrino masses. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.