Much Ado About (Almost!) Nothing: The Experimental Study of Neutrino Masses and Mixing

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

Neutrinos have been described by their discoverer Frederick Reines as ``the most tiny quantity of reality ever imagined by a human being.'' Yet these particles which verge on nothingness have had an enormous influence on the past and future evolution of the universe and are the subject of an increasingly active program of experimental physics. In this talk I will review some of the basic properties of neutrinos and summarize the recent results on neutrino masses and mixing from studies of neutrinos produced in the Sun, cosmic rays, reactors, and accelerators including searches for zero neutrino double beta decay. Looking ahead, I will outline the future course of experiments in the U.S., Asia, and Europe which will address the questions of the fundamental character of the neutrino, the hierarchy of their masses, and their matter anti-matter symmetries.

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Authors

  • Michael Turner

    Illinois Institute of Technology, Bettendorf High School, Bettendorf, IA, Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency, Bettendorf, IA, Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA, Ames Laboratory and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA, Max-Planck-Institut fuer Mikrostrukturphysik, Halle, Germany, CNRS, Universite Lyon I, France, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany, University of Jyvaskila, Finaland, Iowa State University/Ames Laboratory, Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory and Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University, Indiana University, Illinois State University, University of Iowa, Louisiana State University, University of Warwick, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Coe College, University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory, University of Illinois, Ames Laboratory, University of Florida, Tulane University, The Department of Physics and The James Franck Institute, The University of Chicago, J.R. Macdonald Laboratory, Department of Physics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, Department of Physics, Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD 57197, Intense Laser Physics Theory Unit, Illinois State University, Argonne National Laboratory, Dr, Drake University, Physics Department, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Physics Department, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Ames Laboratory and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA, Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA, NEST-CNR-INFM and Scuola Normale Superiore, I-56126 Pisa, Italy, University of New Hampshire Department of Physics, University of Chicago