Understanding the Universe Through Neutrinos

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics has been very successful in numerous tests over the past several decades. However, the SM can not be the ultimate theory to explain all the fundamental interactions in the Universe because of critical gaps. The neutrino sector is one of the few places where the physics beyond standard has been confirmed through the observation of neutrino oscillations, a phenomenon which cannot occur with the massless neutrinos predicted by the standard model. Neutrinos are elementary particles with spin ½, zero electric charge, and tiny but non-zero masses. They come in three distinct flavors and can oscillate among themselves as they propagate. Since they only feel the weak force, their cross section for interacting with matter is extremely small. In collider experiments, they can only be identified as “missing energy.” Consequently, large specialized experiments had to be built for studying neutrinos. These neutrino experiments have evolved from single-pur...