A Matter of Mystery

Abstract: Neutrinos are enigmatic particles. Their properties are rather basic and yet so bizarre and surprising that at times we hardly believe them. We barely notice their presence, and yet they are everywhere and are essential to things as glaring as the sun’s energy production. The minuscule but non-zero mass of a neutrino, nearly a million times smaller than the electron (the next lightest particle), has enormous consequences for our understanding of these particles and their role in shaping the universe. It is possibly an indication of new processes and interactions that we don’t know about and may enable a matter/antimatter imbalance that allows the universe to exist. In this talk, I’ll briefly introduce this perplexing particle and discuss a quantum interference process called neutrino oscillations that allow us to probe its properties. I’ll discuss the challenges in observing and measuring this process, and conclude with where we stand in studying neutrino oscillations and our next steps.