Research Interests
Neutrinos
Particle Physics Beyond the Standard Model
Cosmology
Quantum Gravity Phenomenology
We study
neutrinos and their role as probes for particle physics beyond the Standard Model, cosmology,
and the foundations of
quantum physics. Neutrinos are mavericks in the particle zoo: they are electrically neutral and
therefore hardly interact, they are
much lighter than the other known fermions in the Standard Model, and their flavors mix much more
strongly than quarks. It is
precisely these properties that make neutrinos a particularly exciting object of research:
for example, each cubic centimeter of the
universe is said to contain about 330 neutrinos, which thus contribute about as much to the mass
of the universe as all the stars
combined. Neutrinos thus share many properties with the enigmatic dark matter in the universe.
In addition, neutrinos could be their
own antiparticles, resolving the question of why there is more matter than antimatter in the
universe, propagating in a fourth or
fifth dimension of space, and maintaining quantum coherence over cosmological distance scales.
The exploration of the neutrino sector
has just begun and surely holds many more surprises!
Typical questions addressed by our work are:
What is the absolute mass of the neutrino?
What do neutrino masses tell us about physics at the unification or
quantum gravity scale?
What about the quantum-to-classic transition?
Which role do neutrinos play in cosmology?
What are the dark matter and dark energy in the universe?
How many light neutrinos do exist?
How do these states contribute in different neutrino oscillation
experiments?
Is lepton number broken in Nature?
Why is there more matter than antimatter in the universe?
Which relations exist to beyond the standard model signatures at collider
experiments or in rare decays?
Do extra space-time dimensions exist? What is their effect on neutrino
physics?
Which future experiments can help to solve the remaining mysteries of the
neutrino sector?
How can low-energy physics be motivated from a fundamental theory?
For a complete list of publications see
iNSPIRE HEP.
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