Samoil Bilenky

Samoil Bilenky

Theory Group Visitor, TRIUMF
Research Scientist, JINR Dubna

TRIUMF, MOB 230
4004 Wesbrook Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 2A3
Canada
 
bilenky@to.infn.it

Research Topics

Neutrino oscillations, periodic transitions from one type of neutrino to another, imply that these particles have very tiny masses. This discovery led to the 2015 Nobel prize to A. McDonald and T. Kajita since it implies the existence of new fundamental physics beyond the current Standard Model of elementary particles. The origin of neutrino masses is an open problem that is the subject of my research. While there are many theories of neutrino mass generation, I am primarily interested in features that are independent of particular models. The main idea of this approach is that the smallness of their masses can arise naturally if neutrinos are Majorana in nature, corresponding to them being their own antiparticles. This idea can be verified by the detection of neutrinoless double beta decay, a process in which one nucleus transforms into another and two electrons that is currently being searched for at SNOLAB and other laboratories around the world. In my work I study theoretical aspects of neutrinoless double beta decay. I also investigate the possibility of additional sterile neutrinos that can give rise to new oscillation phenomena that may have already been detected experimentally.

Publications