MPPL Physics Colloquium – Neutrino windows to new physics
Neutrinos are the most elusive particles of the Standard Model even though they are extraordinarily abundant in the Universe. In our quest to uncover all mysteries of the neutrino sector we encountered one of the most surprising characteristics of neutrinos: Neutrinos oscillate, i.e. they can change their flavor when traveling over a distance. This implies that neutrinos are massive, in contradiction with the Standard Model of particle physics, therefore making neutrinos a potential window to a new sector of particle physics.
In the colloquium I will elaborate on how neutrinos can shine light on physics beyond the Standard Model. I will review our current knowledge of the neutrino sector and then demonstrate how new physics particles can impact neutrino physics across many orders of energy and in different searches. Finally, I will show how near future experiments can probe new physics in the neutrino sector across many energy scales to show what we can learn about neutrinos in the future.