Neutrinos: the Lightest Matter Can Have the Heaviest Consequences!
Oxford University and STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The neutrino is the problem child of the Standard Model of Particle Physics
- it was originally proposed because of problems it caused to other measurements,
and it has rarely had the good manners to behave as theorists predict it will. Understanding
neutrinos is, however, critical to an understanding of the most fundamental laws governing the
universe and of the properties of the universe on all scales. The importance of understanding
neutrinos was recognized by the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 2016 Breakthrough Prize
in Physics, but we nonetheless are far from a complete description of how they fit
into our world. The talk will give a brief history of how we got to where we are,
and a look ahead at some experiments that are coming up and where potential new surprises
could lie.