Standard and exotic interpretations of the atmospheric neutrino data

The present status of some theoretical interpretations of the atmospheric neutrino deficit is briefly discussed. Specifically, we show the results for the FC mechanism and for the standard oscillation hypothesis, both in the active and in the sterile channels. All these mechanisms are able to fit the present data to a good statistical level. Among them, the nu_mu --> nu_tau oscillation is certainly the best explanation to the atmospheric neutrino deficit, providing a remarkably good agreement with the data.