General Physics Colloquium - Kristin Ralls Memorial Lecture, Gabriel Orebi Gann, UC Berkeley.  Refreshments from 3:30-3:50 pm.

Title:  Here Be Dragons:  Mysteries of the Neutrino

Host:  Peter Wittich

Abstract:   
Neutrinos are one of the most fascinating particles that occur in nature.  Hundreds of millions of times smaller than the proton, the neutrino was once thought to be massless and to travel at the speed of light.  Huge strides have been made in our understanding of neutrinos in past decades, with the resolution of the solar neutrino problem providing clear evidence of neutrino oscillation and, thus, a non-zero neutrino mass – a Nobel-Prize winning discovery. This has allowed us to move beyond basic questions to a precision era, in which we can study detailed properties of these fundamental particles. This talk will introduce the SNO+ experiment, which will seek to resolve the very nature of the neutrino: is it unique among fermions as being its own antiparticle?  We will then discuss future prospects for the field, including exciting new technological developments that could permit a new kind of neutrino experiment, with a broad experimental program and wide physics reach.