Neutrino masses and oscillations

TL;DR

This paper reviews the history, theory, and current understanding of neutrino masses, mixing, and oscillations, including mechanisms for mass generation and experimental prospects for detecting neutrinoless double beta decay.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of neutrino physics, highlighting the development of theories and experimental approaches related to neutrino masses and oscillations.

Findings

Discussion of the seesaw mechanism for neutrino mass generation

Review of the status of neutrino oscillation experiments

Analysis of neutrinoless double beta decay as a probe for Majorana neutrinos

Abstract

A report on neutrino masses, mixing and oscillations, made in Dubna at the symposium dedicated to 100 years of the Rutherford's discovery of atomic nucleus, is presented. We start with the hypothesis of neutrino which was proposed by W. Pauli in December 1930 in order to solve some problems of nuclei (the problem of spin of $^{7}N_{14}$ and other nuclei and the problem of continuous $\beta$-spectra). After that we consider the theory of massless two-component neutrino and first ideas of neutrino oscillations which were put forward by B. Pontecorvo in Dubna in 1957-58. The present status of neutrino mixing and oscillations is briefly reviewed. The seesaw mechanism of the generation of small Majorana neutrino masses is discussed and neutrinoless double $\beta$-decay of nuclei is considered. A possibility to probe the Majorana mass mechanism of the $0\nu\beta\beta$-decay is discussed.