Is anyone able to explain the comment by Friedland:
"Theoretically it would cause a profound revolution in our understanding of where particles get their mass”? [6 paragraphs from the end]
Presumably neutrinos and antineutrinos being the same entity would somehow indicate our current understanding of the Higg's field is wrong (since it's the interaction of particles with the Higg's field that we understand creates mass, right?) - but there isn't any indication of why this is the case.
If neutrinos are their own anti-particle, they do not get their mass from the higgs field. Most particles have a 'dirac mass' which arises from a coupling with the Higgs Field. An alternative is to have a 'majorana mass' due to the interactions of the two majorana particle fields. As a consequence a super-heavy neutrino with very large mass would be predicted.
I'm not 100% positive on this so please take my comment with a grain of salt.
In the same paragraph, Friedland says "It would also tell us there has to be some new physics at very, very high energy scales—that there is something new in addition to the Standard Model we know and love."
Since the Higgs was discovered by using more and more power to power the particle, I believe they're implying that there is something above that level. Since energy and mass are intertwined, if they can generate different particles at higher energy collisions, there could more to it then just the Higgs field.
I'm not sure how to explain it in non-technical terms, but the problems of neutrinos and their mass is basically:
One is not allowed to add mass-terms to the Standard model (that is a term in the expression that explains the particle physics we know of), because they break symmetries that we know hold (gauge symmetry). So in order to add a mass-term it must be generated by a dynamical field -- the Higgs field -- such that those symmetries are still respected. Hence, the Higgs is able to give the mass-terms to the fermions.
However, the neutrinos are not like the other fermions. Fermions can have different chirality, but the neutrino only has one chirality. Due to the neutrinos being different, the Higgs field needs to be different in order to also generate mass-terms to the neutrinos (or another mechanism than the Higgs-mechanism must be used). Whatever that is, it is probable that it involves something that is beyond the Standard model.
Might be a bit technical, hopefully someone else can make it more understandable.
"Theoretically it would cause a profound revolution in our understanding of where particles get their mass”? [6 paragraphs from the end]
Presumably neutrinos and antineutrinos being the same entity would somehow indicate our current understanding of the Higg's field is wrong (since it's the interaction of particles with the Higg's field that we understand creates mass, right?) - but there isn't any indication of why this is the case.