CERN's strategy for neutrino physics
The understanding of the neutrino sector is a worldwide priority promising physics beyond the Standard Model in a unified theoretical framework that goes from the electroweak scale to the highest energy scales. Following the Higgs boson discovery, massive neutrinos are now firmly set at the frontier of knowledge in particle physics. The nature of the neutrino mass generation, the pattern of mixing angles and masses with the possibility of CP violation, the absolute neutrino mass scale, and the search for the elusive right-handed neutrinos will constitute conceptual and experimental problems for the decades to come. The reward is potentially very high, as the study of neutrinos could provide the answer to two outstanding questions in particle physics: the nature of dark matter and the origin of the asymmetry between matter and anti-matter in the Universe.
The European Strategy for Particle Physics (ESPP) of 2013 has classified the long baseline neutrino programme as one of the four scientific objectives with required international infrastructure. Furthermore, this programme is complementary to neutrino related measurements made in cosmology and provides crucial input to understanding the Universe. In line with the approved European Strategy, a project is launched at CERN with the aim of providing an effective platform for the future neutrino research activities at CERN and internationally, relating to experiments that use accelerator beams, reactors, cosmic rays and underground laboratories.
The CERN Council has approved the medium-term plan, consistent with the European Strategy document, which includes hosting a neutrino platform at CERN for R&D and prototyping for the next generation of neutrino detectors. In accordance with CERN’s long tradition in international collaborations, CERN will continue investing in the development of a worldwide programme in neutrino physics that will explore the challenges in this field and exploit future opportunities.
In an upcoming seminar on 3rd March, Sergio Bertolucci, CERN’s General Director of Research and Scientific Computing will present CERN’s Strategy for Neutrino physics.
