Probing Exotic Neutrino Interactions

The student will explore potential couplings in the 'invisible' sector using neutrinos as a portal. The goal is a comprehensive picture of the constraints and consequences of non-standard interactions of neutrinos with normal matter, Dark Matter and other hidden sector particles (e.g. right-handed neutrinos charged under an exotic gauge interaction) as well as exotic interactions with gravity. The project covers a wide range of particle and astroparticle physics and the consortium provides an ideal research environment, with multiple opportunities for collaboration with Calmet, Hindmarsh, Huber and Sanz at the University of Sussex. After initial training, the graduate student will: explore the theory landscape of non-standard and exotic neutrino interactions and the relevant experimental and observational effects (e.g. on neutrino oscillation and scattering, Dark Matter searches, structure formation and cosmology) (Y1); develop a framework incorporating effective operators and simplified models to comprehensively describe the potential interactions and connect these to observables (Y2); analyse in detail the constraints on (or evidence for) non-standard interactions and interpret the result in the wider context of ultraviolet-complete models and other physics areas (Y3).