How does the detection of neutrino mass upset cosmology and physics?
The relationship between neutrino mass and cosmology and physics is very complex. The so-called ‘Standard Model’ describes what we know about how particles and fields operate. It is composed of three ( or two!) fundamental theories for the three fundamental forces in nature: The electromagnetic interaction; the weak interaction; and the strong interaction. The electromagnetic interaction is described by a theory called Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) and this theory has absolutely nothing to do with neutrinos because neutrinos do not carry electric charge, nor interact with matter via the electromagnetic force. It does have to do with the outcome of the mechanism that confers mass on particles, and this mechanism according to weak interaction theory is determined by a new family of particles called the Higgs bosons. Although neutrinos have nothing to do with electrodynamics, the mass of the electron is important to electrodynamics, and its origin is theoretically related to the propertie
