Neutrinos: past, present, future

I will first give a brief but comprehensive review of the status of our knowledge in neutrino physics. With reference to a not too far future I will then discuss the perspectives that appear to me to be most important and promising.

The basic concepts of neutrino physics are presented at a level appropriate for integration into elementary courses on quantum mechanics and/or modern physics.

A revolution in our understanding of the neutrino sector is underway, driven by observations that are interpreted in terms of changes in neutrino flavors as they propagate. Since neutrino oscillations occur only if neutrinos are massive, these phenomena indicate physics beyond the Standard Model. With the present evidence for oscillations from atmospheric, solar and accelerator data, we are already able to begin to make strong inferences about the mass spectrum and mixings of...

In this talk I will review our present knowledge on neutrino masses and mixing trying to emphasize what has been definitively proved and what is in the process of being probed. I will also discuss the most important theoretical implications of these results: the existence of new physics, the estimate of the scale of this new physics as well as some other possible consequences such as leptogenesis origin of the baryon asymmetry.

History of Neutrino Physics is revied with special emphasis on anecdotal events often neglected.

The topics discussed in this lecture include: general properties of neutrinos in the SM, the theory of neutrino masses and mixings (Dirac and Majorana), neutrino oscillations both in vacuum and in matter, an overview of the experimental evidence for neutrino masses and of the prospects in neutrino oscillation physics. We also briefly review the relevance of neutrinos in leptogenesis and in beyond-the-Standard-Model physics.

After a brief overview of the present knowledge of neutrino masses and mixing, we summarize what can be learned about physics beyond the standard model from the various proposed neutrino experiments. We also comment on the impact of the experiments on our understanding of the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe as well as what can be learned from some experiments outside the domain of neutrinos.

In this talk I review our present knowledge on neutrino masses and mixing as well as the expectations from near future experiments.

The major steps in the development of our knowledge about neutrinos are reviewed. The basics of neutrino oscillation formalism is presented. Neutrino oscillations in the framework of three-neutrino mixing are considered. The evidence for neutrino oscillations is discussed.

Nonzero neutrino masses are the first definitive need to extend the standard model. After reviewing the basic framework, I describe the status of some of the major issues, including tests of the basic framework of neutrino masses and mixings; the question of Majorana vs. Dirac; the spectrum, mixings, and number of neutrinos; models, with special emphasis on constraints from typical superstring constructions (which are not consistent with popular bottom-up assumptions); and ot...