Description
The current situation in physics is intriguing, to say the least. Our current best knowledge, summarised in the Standard Model, shows no obvious cracks in our experimental measurements. Yet, many observed phenomena remain unexplained, the mass of neutrinos, matter-antimatter asymmetry, and dark matter being some of the most prominent. Future searches for the "new physics" that should be at the root of these are without doubt in need of a diverse approach and experiments with a complementary sensitivity to different types of theoretical approaches. CERN strongly recognises this need and pushes ahead a diversity of experimental programmes. A major player among these is the recently approved SHIP experiment with the associated Beam Dump Facility at the CERN SPS accelerator. SHiP is aimed at exploring so called "feebly interacting particles" with generic sensitivity to both decay and scattering signatures. The experiment is set to start data taking by the beginning of the 30’s.
In this talk, I will discuss the motivation for searches for feebly interacting particles at the SPS, with special emphasis on heavy neutral leptons and SHiP’s ability in making unique measurements in neutrino physics, and describe the experimental challenges.
