Atmospheric neutrinos: phenomenological summary and outlook

TL;DR

This paper reviews atmospheric neutrino observations, emphasizing the robust evidence for muon neutrino disappearance and the strong indication of physics beyond the standard model, primarily neutrino oscillations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive phenomenological summary of atmospheric neutrino data and discusses the implications for new physics beyond the standard model.

Findings

Robust evidence for muon neutrino disappearance

Neutrino oscillations fit all data well

Significant uncertainties affect detailed interpretation

Abstract

The predictions of the atmospheric nu event rates are affected by significant uncertainties, however the evidence for the `disappearance' of nu_mu's and nubar_mu's obtained by SK (and other underground detectors) is robust and cannot be accounted in the framework of the minimum standard model without assuming very large ad hoc experimental systematic effects. The existence of `new physics' beyond the standard model is therefore close to be established; neutrino oscillations provide a very good fit to all data. The theoretical uncertainties do have an important role in the detailed interpretation of the data, and in the estimate of oscillation parameters.