Physics & Astronomy Colloquium

3:30 PM, Friday, April 21, 2006

Room 155, Chem-Phys Building

Dr. Eric Norman

Physics Division
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

``Recent Developments in Neutrino Science: A Whole Lot About Almost Nothing''

In the past few years, there have been several major discoveries in the area of neutrino science. The SuperKamiokande detector in Japan provided compelling evidence for the transformation of muon-type atmospheric neutrinos into tau-type neutrinos. The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory in Canada solved the long-standing solar neutrino problem by demonstrating that electron-type neutrinos are transformed into muon and/or tau-type neutrinos on their way to us from the core of the Sun. More recently, the Kamland experiment in Japan showed that man-made neutrinos from nuclear reactors show this same sort of transformation of one neutrino type into another. The implications of these experiments are that: (1) neutrinos can and do transform from one type to another, (2) neutrinos have finite mass, and (3) neutrino mass may have played an important role in the evolution of our universe. While much has been learned about neutrinos, there are still a number of open questions. In this talk, I will discuss these recent experimental results and prospects for future experiments in the field of neutrino science.

Refreshments will be served in CP 155 at 3:15 PM