Theoretical Status of Neutrino Physics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the theoretical framework of neutrino physics, emphasizing the type-I seesaw mechanism within quantum field theory, and discusses the implications of different seesaw scales for particle physics and cosmology.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of the theoretical status of neutrino masses, focusing on the type-I seesaw mechanism and its phenomenological implications.

Findings

Neutrino masses imply new physical states in quantum field theory.

Different seesaw scales have distinct phenomenological consequences.

The type-I seesaw mechanism is central to explaining neutrino masses.

Abstract

In the framework of renormalisable relativistic quantum field theory, the explanation of neutrino masses necessarily requires the existence of new physical states. These new states may also be responsible for other unexplained phenomena in particle physics and cosmology. After a brief introduction, I focus on scenarios in which the neutrino masses are generated by the type-I seesaw mechanism and review the phenomenological implications of different choices of the seesaw scale.