Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics: What we have learned and what we would like to discover – Nicole Bell
Date: Wed. May 3rd, 2006, 4:15 pm-5:15 pmLocation: Rockefeller 301
Our knowledge of neutrino physics has undergone dramatic improvement in the last few years. We are now in the position to make confident predictions taking neutrino oscillations into account, opening the possibility to search for truly exotic particle physics within the neutrino sector, and to use neutrinos as reliable probes of astrophysics and cosmology. However, some very fundamental questions about neutrinos remain unanswered, such as whether their masses are of Dirac or Majorana type, or what the absolute neutrino mass scale is (oscillation experiments only reveal information about mass differences). We discuss implications of neutrino mixing for astrophysics and cosmology, and the way in which some of the outstanding questions about neutrinos may be addressed.