New Directions in Theoretical Neutrino Physics

Project Information

nuDirections

Grant agreement ID: 637506

DOI

10.3030/637506

Project closed

EC signature date 1 April 2015

Start date 1 September 2015

End date 31 August 2020

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 806 600,00

EU contribution

€ 806 600,00

Coordinated by

ORGANISATION EUROPEENNE POUR LA RECHERCHE NUCLEAIRE
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 5 - nuDirections (New Directions in Theoretical Neutrino Physics)

Reporting period: 2020-04-01 to 2020-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Neutrinos are among the most mysterious particles known in fundamental physics, not least because interact extremely weakly with other matter and are therefore very hard to detect. In the Standard Model of particle physics, neutrinos come in three different types (called "flavours"), but for several years, the hypothesis that more than these three neutrino flavours exist, has received considerable attention. One of the foremost goals of the project "nuDirection" is to address the possible existence of a fourth, "sterile", neutrino from the theoretical and phenomenological side. By interpreting and combing data from a large number of experiments, we assess the viability of scenarios with more than three neutrino flavours. We also disucss such scenarios in a broader context, encompassing in particular their consequences for cosmology and astrophysics. Beyond sterile neutrinos, we explore more general extensions of the neutrino sector of the standard model. Several controversial experimental hints exist for neutrino physics beyond the three-flavour paradigm, and if any of these should be confirmed, it would constitute a major breakthrough. Even in the absence of such a discovery, the results from this project will significantly improve our understanding of neutrino physics. This will be crucial in the context of the future experimental program in particle physics, especially in view of multi-billion euro investment in facilities in the US and in Japan.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

As major milestones, we have carried out a comprehensive analysis of neutrino oscillation data from dozens of experiments, with the goal of assessing the global status of sterile neutrino models. We have moreover pushed forward the exploration of possible connections between neutrinos and the dark matter in the Universe: we have studied several ways in which neutrinos can tell us about the properties of dark matter, and we have explored a new scenario in which (sterile) neutrinos *are* the dark matter.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The analysis codes developed in the context of these project continue to be at the forefront of the field. In the coming years, we plan to further explore the implications of neutrinos physics for the field of dark matter, focusing not only on particle physics aspects of this problem, but also on astrophysical questions.

The IceCube detector whose data was central to nuDirections. Credit: Martin Wolf, IceCube/NSF