Neutrinos in the time of Higgs

Abstract

In this paper, the recent progress in the determination of neutrino oscillation parameters and future prospects have been discussed. The tiny neutrino masses as inferred from oscillation data and cosmology cannot be explained naturally by the Higgs mechanism and warrant some new physics. The latter can be connected to the Majorana nature of the neutrinos which can be probed by neutrinoless double beta decay (0νμμ). The paper also summarizes the latest experimental results in 0νμμ and discusses some implications for the left–right symmetric model which could be a plausible new physics scenario for the generation of neutrino masses.