Heavy Neutrinos as a Key to understand the Universe (Prof. Marco Drewes)

Heavy Neutrinos as a Key to understand the Universe

  • Datum: 17.12.2019
  • Uhrzeit: 14:30
  • Vortragende(r): Prof. Marco Drewes
  • Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium
  • Ort: Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics
  • Raum: Herbert Walther Lecture Hall
Neutrino flavour oscillations indicate that neutrinos have tiny masses. They are the only firmly established proof of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics that has been observed in the laboratory. Understanding the origin of neutrino masses may therefore provide a key to understand how the Standard Model should be embedded in a more fundamental theory of Nature.

At the same time neutrinos are the only elementary fermions that are exclusively known to exist with left-handed chirality. If the neutrino masses are at least partially generated by the Higgs mechanism in the same way as those of other particles, then neutrinos should also have right-handed partners. Apart from explaining the neutrino masses, those new particles could also help to solve some of the "big questions" in cosmology, including the Dark Matter puzzle and the origin of ordinary matter in the universe. I will give an overview of the theoretical motivation and ongoing experimental hunt for heavy right-handed neutrinos.


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