Neutrino masses and new physics

par Carla Biggio (MPI Munich)

lundi 16 mars 2009, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Paris

Amphithéâtre

Neutrino masses demand for new physics beyond the Standard Model. The seesaw mechanism offers a way to generate naturally small neutrino masses. In this seminar we discuss the phenomenology associated to the three types of seesaw models using the effective field theory approach and show that its effects are relevant only if the new physics scale is relatively low. We discuss a framework where this is realized and use present experimental constraints to put bounds on the seesaw parameters. We focus in particular on two aspects of the phenomenology of the type-III seesaw model, namely the rare lepton decays and the anomalous magnetic moment of leptons. Finally we discuss the possibility of discovering the responsible for neutrino masses at the LHC.