Neutrino-atom ionizing collisions in searches for physics beyond the Standard Model

摘要

In particle physics, neutrinos are usually regarded as almost elusive, tiny uncharged fermions. The scale of neutrino mass m_v is much lower than that of the charged leptons (m_(v_f) m_f, f = e, μ, τ). The hardly measurable neutrino-matter interaction is supposed to be governed by the weak force. At the same time, neutrinos may also interact with matter due to the electromagnetic mechanism (a recent review of this topic can be found in [1]). In this respect, neutrino electromagnetic properties appear to be of particular interest, because they open a door to "new physics" beyond the Standard Model (SM). These properties include, for example, the electric charge, the charge radius, the anapole moment, and the dipole electric and magnetic moments. So far no experimental evidence has been found for such unusual neutrino features. Nevertheless, the recent development of our knowledge of neutrino mixing and oscillations, corroborated by the discovery of flavor conversions of neutrinos from different sources, supports the assumption about nonvanishing electromagnetic characteristics of neutrinos.