NEUPROBES · Neutrinos and other probes for new physics

The main goal of this project is the study of the present evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) with particular emphasis in neutrino phenomenology. Fundamental neutrino properties, such as the value of neutrino masses, their hierarchy, their Majorana nature, or the existence of leptonic CP violation are still unknown. This research is extremely timely since a new generation of accelerator experiments and cosmological probes is addressing these questions. In the coming years, the analysis and interpretation of all these data will be of great importance to complete our picture of the neutrino sector and constitutes one of my main research goals. Depending on these results, a new generation of facilities will be necessary to complete the picture they reveal. Their optimization will depend crucially on the findings of the present generation of experiments and constitutes the second goal of the present proposal. From the theoretical point of view, the underlying physics mechanism responsible for neutrino masses and mixings is still unknown and its discovery would provide the key to the puzzles of flavour or the origin of the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry. Thus, the research project also proposes the study of the phenomenological signatures of models of neutrino masses as well as the strategies to probe neutrino data for signals of new physics. In this context, collider experiments such as the LHC with unprecedented energy and luminosity will provide exceptional tools. The interplay between particle physics and cosmology also provides further evidence for new physics through the unknown dark matter and dark energy sectors. Therefore, a secondary research line of this proposal will be to explore the best probes to these unknown physics as well as the phenomenological implications of different theoretical models aiming at their explanation.