The Standard Modelexplains the fundamental physics of how the universe works.
I am aneutrino physicist.Neutrinosrepresent three of the17 fundamental particles in the Standard Model.
They zip through every person on Earth at all times of day.
I study the properties of interactions betweenneutrinosand normal matter particles.
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Teams measured basic parameters of the model more precisely than ever before.
More than 100 years later, physicists are still discovering new pieces of the Standard Model.
The Standard Modelis apredictive frameworkthat does two things.
First, it explains what the basic particles of matter are.
These are things like electrons and the quarks that make up protons and neutrons.
Second, it predicts how these matter particles interact with each other using messenger particles.
The Higgs boson wasntdiscovered until 2012after decades of work at CERN, the huge particle collider in Europe.
Notably, it does not include any description of gravity.
Only after experiments give physicists these exact masses can they be used for predictions.
The better the measurements, the better the predictions that can be made.
Recently, physicists on a team at CERN measuredhow strongly the Higgs boson feels itself.
Another CERN team also measured the Higgs bosons massmore precisely than ever before.
And finally, there was also progress on measuring the mass of neutrinos.
Physicists know neutrinos have more than zero mass but less than the amount currently detectable.
Basically, muons dont behave as they should.
This finding could point toundiscovered particles that interact with muons.
2021 was a big year for advancing the experimental tools of physics.
At these incredible energies, physicists may discover new particles that were too heavy to see at lower energies.
Some other technological advancements were made to help the search for dark matter.
Particularly relevant to my work with neutrinos is the development of immense new detectors likeHyper-KamiokandeandDUNE.
Using these detectors, scientists will hopefully be able to answer questions about afundamental asymmetry in how neutrinos oscillate.
2021 highlighted some of the ways the Standard Model fails to explain every mystery of the universe.
