Cosmology provides an excellent laboratory for testing various aspects of neutrino physics. Here, I review the current status of cosmological searches for neutrino mass, as well as other properties of neutrinos. Future cosmological probes of neutrino properties are also discussed in detail.
Neutrino masses and the number of light neutrino species can be tested in a variety of laboratory experiments and also can be constrained by particle astrophysics and precision cosmology. A conflict between these various results could be an indication of new physics in the neutrino sector. In this paper we explore the possibility for reconciliation of otherwise discrepant results in a simple model containing a light scalar field which produces Mass Varying Neutrinos (MaVaNs). We extend previous work on MaVaNs to consider issues of neutrino clumping, the effects of additional contributions to n…
Short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments have shown hints of the existence of additional sterile neutrinos in the eV mass range. However, such neutrinos seem incompatible with cosmology because they have too large an impact on cosmic structure formation. Here we show that new interactions in the sterile neutrino sector can prevent their production in the early Universe and reconcile short baseline oscillation experiments with cosmology.
I review the current status of structure formation bounds on neutrino properties such as mass and energy density. I also discuss future cosmological bounds as well as a variety of different scenarios for reconciling cosmology with the presence of light sterile neutrinos.
We briefly discuss the main effects of the presence of a Light Sterile Neutrino (LS$ν$) in Cosmology and how its properties can be constrained by Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and other cosmological measurements.
Cosmology provides a unique and very powerful laboratory for testing neutrino physics. Here, I review the current status of cosmological neutrino measurements. Future prospects are also discussed, with particular emphasis on the interplay with experimental neutrino physics. Finally I discuss the possibility of a direct detection of the cosmic neutrino background and its associated anisotropy.
In recent years precision cosmology has become an increasingly powerful probe of particle physics. Perhaps the prime example of this is the very stringent cosmological upper bound on the neutrino mass. However, other aspects of neutrino physics, such as their decoupling history and possible non-standard interactions, can also be probed using observations of cosmic structure. Here, I review the current status of cosmological bounds on neutrino properties and discuss the potential of future observations, for example by the recently approved EUCLID mission, to precisely measure neutrino propertie…
Sterile neutrinos in the electronvolt mass range are hinted at by a number of terrestrial neutrino experiments. However, such neutrinos are highly incompatible with data from the Cosmic Microwave Background and large scale structure. This paper discusses how charging sterile neutrinos under a new pseudoscalar interaction can reconcile eV sterile neutrinos with terrestrial neutrino data. We show that this model can reconcile eV sterile neutrinos in cosmology, providing a fit to all available data which is way better than the standard $Λ$CDM model with one additional fully thermalized sterile ne…
In $\rmΛ$CDM cosmology, Dark Matter (DM) and neutrinos are assumed to be non-interacting. However, it is possible to have scenarios, where DM-neutrino interaction may be present, leading to scattering of DM with neutrinos and annihilation of DM into neutrinos. We investigate the viability of such scenarios in the light of cosmological data by making use of the Planck 2018 dataset (high-l TT+TE+EE, low-l TT, low-l EE) and constrain these processes in the light of the same. We also discuss a viable particle DM model where DM-neutrino interaction is present, and map the constraints obtained to th…
We explore the complementarity between terrestrial neutrino oscillation experiments and astrophysical/cosmological measurements in probing the existence of sterile neutrinos. We find that upcoming accelerator neutrino experiments will not improve on constraints by the time they are operational, but that reactor experiments can already probe parameter space beyond the reach of Planck. We emphasize the tension between cosmological experiments and reactor antineutrino experiments and enumerate several possibilities for resolving this tension.
The Short BaseLine (SBL) neutrino oscillations anomalies hint at the presence of a sterile neutrino with a mass of around 1 eV. However, such neutrino is highly incompatible with the cosmological data, in particular from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), if no new physics is assumed. An interesting possibility for reconciling the 1 eV sterile neutrino presence in cosmology is related to the existence of a new pseudoscalar interaction. If the sterile neutrinos experience such a pseudoscalar interaction, the cosmological analyses of the full CMB data prefer a sterile neutrino mass that is f…
Recent results from short--baseline neutrino oscillation experiments and Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy measurements suggest the presence of additional sterile neutrinos. In this paper we properly combine these data sets to derive bounds on the sterile neutrino masses in the 3+1 and 3+2 frameworks, finding a potentially good agreement between the two datasets. However, when galaxy clustering is included in the analysis a tension between the oscillation and cosmological data is clearly present.
I give an overview of the effects of neutrino masses in cosmology, focussing on the role they play in the evolution of cosmological perturbations. I discuss how recent observations of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies and the large-scale matter distribution can probe neutrino masses with greater precision than current laboratory experiments. I describe several new techniques that will be used to probe cosmology in the future, as well as recent advances in the computation of the nonlinear matter power spectrum and related observables.
We explore the dark matter phenomenology of a weak-scale right-handed neutrino in the context of a Two Higgs Doublet Model. The expected signal at direct detection experiments is different from the usual spin-independent and spin-dependent classification since the scattering with quarks depends on the dark matter spin. The dark matter relic density is set by thermal freeze-out and in the presence of non-standard cosmology, where an Abelian gauge symmetry is key for the dark matter production mechanism. We show that such symmetry allows us to simultaneously address neutrino masses and the flavo…
Precision cosmology and big-bang nucleosynthesis mildly favor extra radiation in the universe beyond photons and ordinary neutrinos, lending support to the existence of low-mass sterile neutrinos. We use the WMAP 7-year data, small-scale CMB observations from ACBAR, BICEP and QuAD, the SDSS 7th data release, and measurement of the Hubble parameter from HST observations to derive credible regions for the assumed common mass scale m_s and effective number N_s of thermally excited sterile neutrino states. Our results are compatible with the existence of one or perhaps two sterile neutrinos, as su…
It has been suggested that both recent cosmological data and the results of flavor oscillation experiments (MiniBooNE and LSND) lend support to the existence of low-mass sterile neutrinos. The cosmological data appear to weakly favor additional forms of radiation in the Universe, beyond photons and three standard neutrino families. We reconsider the cosmological evidence by making the resulting confidence intervals on the additional effective neutrino species as prior-independent as possible. We find that, once the prior-dependence is removed, the latest cosmological data show no evidence for …
There are hints, both from cosmology and from neutrino oscillation experiments, that one or two sterile neutrinos with eV masses are favored. We consider the implications of combining data from short baseline neutrino experiments with cosmological observations. In particular we consider cosmological models where the equation of state of dark energy and the curvature are allowed to vary. We find that the consistency of results from short baseline experiments and cosmology is dependent on the cosmological data sets that are used. When the two are consistent, we find that the inclusion of informa…
Cosmology is making impressive progress and it is producing stringent bounds on the sum of the neutrino masses Σ, a parameter of great importance for the current laboratory experiments. In this letter, we exploit the potential relevance of the analysis of Palanque-Delabrouille et al. [JCAP 1502, 045 (2015)] to the neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) search. This analysis indicates small values for the lightest neutrino mass, since the authors find Σ < 84 meV at 1σ C. L., and provides a 1σ preference for the normal hierarchy. The allowed values for the Majorana effective mass, probed by 0νββ,…
I introduce the consequences of neutrino mass and mixing in the dense environments of the early Universe and in astrophysical environments. Thermal and matter effects are reviewed in the context of a two-neutrino formalism, with methods of extension to multiple neutrinos. The observed large neutrino mixing angles place the strongest constraint on cosmological lepton (or neutrino) asymmetries, while new sterile neutrinos provide a wealth of possible new physics, including lepton asymmetry generation as well as candidates for dark matter. I also review cosmic microwave background and large-scale…
Recent advances in cosmic observations have brought us to the verge of discovery of the absolute scale of neutrino masses. Nonzero neutrino masses are known evidence of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Our understanding of the clustering of matter in the presence of massive neutrinos has significantly improved over the past decade, yielding cosmological constraints that are tighter than any laboratory experiment, and which will improve significantly over the next decade, resulting in a guaranteed detection of the absolute neutrino mass scale.
Short baseline neutrino oscillation experiments have shown hints of the existence of additional sterile neutrinos in the eV mass range. Such sterile neutrinos are incompatible with cosmology because they suppress structure formation unless they can be prevented from thermalising in the early Universe or removed by subsequent decay or annihilation. Here we present a novel scenario in which both sterile neutrinos and dark matter are coupled to a new, light pseudoscalar. This can prevent thermalisation of sterile neutrinos and make dark matter sufficiently self-interacting to have an impact on ga…
We show how 21 cm cosmology can test relic neutrino radiative decays into sterile neutrinos. Using recent EDGES results, we derive constraints on the lifetime of the decaying neutrinos. If the EDGES anomaly will be confirmed, then there are two solutions, one for much longer and one for much shorter lifetimes than the age of the universe, showing how relic neutrino radiative decays can explain the anomaly in a simple way. We also show how to combine EDGES results with those from radio background observations, showing that potentially the ARCADE 2 excess can be also reproduced together with the…
We explore the cosmological signals of theories in which the neutrinos decay into invisible dark radiation after becoming non-relativistic. We show that in this scenario, near-future large scale structure measurements from the Euclid satellite, when combined with cosmic microwave background data from Planck, may allow an independent determination of both the lifetime of the neutrinos and the sum of their masses. These parameters can be independently determined because the Euclid data will cover a range of redshifts, allowing the growth of structure over time to be tracked. If neutrinos are sta…
Neutrinos can play an important role in the evolution of the Universe, modifying some of the cosmological observables. In this contribution we summarize the main aspects of cosmological relic neutrinos and we describe how the precision of present cosmological data can be used to learn about neutrino properties, in particular their mass, providing complementary information to beta decay and neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments. We show how the analysis of current cosmological observations, such as the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background or the distribution of large-scale struc…
Light sterile neutrinos with a mass around 1 eV have been studied for many years as a possible explanation of the so called short-baseline neutrino oscillation anomalies. Recently, several neutrino oscillation experiments reported preferences for non-zero values of the mixing angles and squared mass differences for active-sterile mixing, which however are not always in agreement. I review our current knowledge of the light sterile neutrino in the 3+1 model, starting with a separate discussion on the status of the most relevant searches and then analyzing the problems that arise when combining …
Cosmology is well suited to study the effects of long range interactions due to the large densities in the early Universe. In this article, we explore how the energy density and equation of state of a fermion system diverge from the commonly assumed ideal gas form under the presence of scalar long range interactions with a range much smaller than cosmological scales. In this scenario, "small"-scale physics can impact our largest-scale observations. As a benchmark, we apply the formalism to self-interacting neutrinos, performing an analysis to present and future cosmological data. Our results s…
Despite the impressive success of the standard cosmological model, several anomalies defy its triumph. Among them is the so-called lensing anomaly: the Planck satellite observes stronger CMB gravitational lensing than expected. The role of neutrinos in this anomaly has been mostly overlooked, despite their key role in CMB lensing, because in the standard scenario they tend to increase the tension. Here, we show that this strongly depends on the assumed neutrino equation of state. We demonstrate that if neutrinos have yet undiscovered long-range interactions, the lensing pattern is significantl…
We show that, if they exist, lepton number asymmetries ($L_α$) of neutrino flavors should be distinguished from the ones ($L_i$) of mass eigenstates, since Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) bounds on the flavor eigenstates cannot be directly applied to the mass eigenstates. Similarly, Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) constraints on mass eigenstates do not directly constrain flavor asymmetries. Due to the difference of mass and flavor eigenstates, the cosmological constraint on the asymmetries of neutrino flavors can be much stronger than conventional expectation, but not uniquely determined unle…
In this paper we revisit the question of the information which cosmology provides on the scenarios with sterile neutrinos invoked to describe the SBL anomalies using Bayesian statistical tests. We perform an analysis of the cosmological data in $Λ$CDM$+r+ν_s$ cosmologies for different cosmological data combinations, and obtain the marginalized cosmological likelihood in terms of the two relevant parameters, the sterile neutrino mass $m_s$ and its contribution to the energy density of the early Universe $N_{\rm eff}$. We then present an analysis to quantify at which level a model with one steri…
We explore the neutrinoless double beta ($0νββ$) decay induced by an ultralight dark matter field coupled to neutrinos. The effect on $0νββ$ decay is significant if the coupling violates the lepton number, for which the $ΔL=2$ transition is directly driven by the dark matter field without further suppression of small neutrino masses. As the ultralight dark matter can be well described by a classical field, the effect features a periodic modulation pattern in decay events. However, we find that in the early Universe such coupling will be very likely to alter the standard cosmological results. I…
At first we introduce the Neutrino in the standard Model, then the Dirac and Majorana Masses. After introducing the See-Saw Mechanism, we discuss the neutrino oscillations and the neutrino in astrophysics and cosmology. We finish this paper with a brief summary of the neutrino experiments.
The roles of massive neutrinos in cosmology -- in leptogenesis and in the evolution of mass density fluctuations -- are reviewed. Emphasis is given to the limit on neutrino mass from these considerations.
Cosmology is at present one of the most powerful probes of neutrino properties. The advent of precision data from the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure has allowed for a very strong bound on the neutrino mass. Here, I review the status of cosmological bounds on neutrino properties with emphasis on mass bounds on light neutrinos.
We present a comprehensive overview of an extension of the Standard Model that contains three right-handed (sterile) neutrinos with masses below the electroweak scale [the Neutrino Minimal Standard Model, (nuMSM)]. We consider the history of the Universe from the inflationary era through today and demonstrate that most of the observed phenomena beyond the Standard Model can be explained within the framework of this model. We review the mechanism of baryon asymmetry of the Universe in the nuMSM and discuss a dark matter candidate that can be warm or cold and satisfies all existing constraints. …
Consistent treatment of flavour-specific neutrino self-interactions in cosmology
Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universitat de València(粒子物理研究所,西班牙瓦伦西亚大学);Departament de Física Tèorica, Universitat de València(理论物理系,西班牙瓦伦西亚大学);UCLouvain, Centre for Cosmology, Particle Physics and Phenomenology (CP3)(天主教鲁汶大学,宇宙学、粒子物理与现象学中心);Technische Universität München(慕尼黑工业大学);Bielefeld University(比勒费尔德大学)
Precision cosmology enables to test fundamental physics, including neutrino properties, with unprecedented accuracy. In this work, I review the basics of neutrino cosmology. I briefly describe how neutrinos affect cosmological observables, such as anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and fluctuations in the matter field. I show current constraints and projected sensitivities on the sum of the neutrino masses $Σm_ν$ and on the number of relativistic species $N_\mathrm{eff}$ from a selection of cosmological data. I finally comment about the implications of those bounds for neutrino ph…
Cosmology yields the most restrictive limits on neutrino masses and conversely, massive neutrinos would contribute to the cosmic dark-matter density and would play an important role for the formation of structure in the universe. Neutrino oscillations may well solve the solar neutrino problem and can have a significant impact on supernova physics. The neutrino signal from a future galactic supernova could provide evidence for cosmologically interesting neutrino masses or set interesting limits.
In light of the improved sensitivities of cosmological observations, we examine the status of quasi-degenerate neutrino mass scenarios. Within the simplest extension of the standard cosmological model with massive neutrinos, we find that quasi-degenerate neutrinos are severely constrained by present cosmological data and neutrino oscillation experiments. % % We find that Planck 2018 observations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies disfavour quasi-degenerate neutrino masses at $2.4$ Gaussian $σ$'s, while adding Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) data brings the rejection to 5.9$σ$…
We propose a simple method to quantify a possible exclusion of the inverted neutrino mass ordering from cosmological bounds on the sum of the neutrino masses. The method is based on Bayesian inference and allows for a calculation of the posterior odds of normal versus inverted ordering. We apply the method for a specific set of current data from Planck CMB data and large-scale structure surveys, providing an upper bound on the sum of neutrino masses of 0.14 eV at 95% CL. With this analysis we obtain posterior odds for normal versus inverted ordering of about 2:1. If cosmological data is combin…
We review the consequences of neutrino mixing in the early universe. For both active-sterile mixing or mixing between three active neutrinos only, the consequences of oscillations depend crucially upon the size of the universe's lepton number (relic neutrino asymmetry.)
Primordial nucleosynthesis constrains the properties of light, stable neutrinos. Apart from the well--known limit on the number of neutrino species, there are also bounds on neutrino masses and magnetic moments. I discuss also sterile neutrinos and neutrino propagation in a primordial magnetic field, such as could be the origin of the observed galactic magnetic fields.
It is shown that the tension between recent neutrino oscillation experiments, favoring sterile neutrinos with masses of the order of 1 eV, and cosmological data which impose stringent constraints on neutrino masses from the free streaming suppression of density fluctuations, can be resolved in models of the present accelerated expansion of the Universe based on f(R) gravity.
We provide a quantitative analysis of the halo model in the context of massive neutrino cosmologies. We discuss all the ingredients necessary to model the non-linear matter and cold dark matter power spectra and compare with the results of N-body simulations that incorporate massive neutrinos. Our neutrino halo model is able to capture the non-linear behavior of matter clustering with a $\sim 20\%$ accuracy up to very non-linear scales of $k=10~h/$Mpc (which would be affected by baryon physics). The largest discrepancies arise in the range $k=0.5-1~h/$Mpc where the 1-halo and 2-halo terms are …
We use data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) DR4 to search for the presence of neutrino self-interaction in the cosmic microwave background. Consistent with prior works, the posterior distributions we find are bimodal, with one mode consistent with $Λ$CDM and one where neutrinos strongly self-interact. By combining ACT data with large-scale information from WMAP, we find that a delayed onset of neutrino free streaming caused by significantly strong neutrino self-interaction is compatible with these data at the $2-3σ$ level. As seen in the past, the preference shifts to $Λ$CDM with th…
We analyze the oscillation signals generated by one extra sterile neutrino. We fully take into account the effects of the established oscillations among active neutrinos. We analyze the effects in solar, atmospheric, reactor and beam experiments, cosmology and supernovæ. We analyze the impact of the LSND anomaly on cosmology showing, in the full 4 neutrino context, that it is not compatible with standard cosmology. We identify the still allowed regions of the parameter space, outlining which are the future experiments which can improve the bounds.
We consider generic models of quintessence and we investigate the influence of massive neutrino matter with field-dependent masses on the matter power spectrum. In case of minimally coupled neutrino matter, we examine the effect in tracker models with inverse power-law and double exponential potentials. We present detailed investigations for the scaling field with a steep exponential potential, non-minimally coupled to massive neutrino matter, and we derive constraints on field-dependent neutrino masses from the observational data.
Tantalizing cosmological and terrestrial evidence suggests the number of light neutrinos may be greater than 3, motivating a careful re-examination of cosmological bounds on extra light species. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis constrains the number of relativistic neutrino species present during nucleosynthesis, $N_{eff}^{BBN}$, while measurements of the CMB angular power spectrum constrain the effective energy density in relativistic neutrinos at the time of matter-radiation equality, $N_{eff}^{CMB}$. There are a number of scenarios where new sterile neutrino species may have different contributions…
In this essay we extend the standard discussion of neutrino oscillations to astrophysical neutrinos propagating through expanding space. This extension introduces a new cosmological parameter $I$ into the oscillation phase. The new parameter records cosmic history in much the same manner as the redshift z or the apparent luminosity D_L. Measuring $I$ through neutrino oscillations could help determine cosmological parameters and discriminate among different cosmologies.
Present cosmological observations yield an upper bound on the neutrino mass which is significantly stronger than laboratory bounds. However, the exact value of the cosmological bound is model dependent and therefore less robust. Here, I review the current status of cosmological neutrino mass bounds and also discuss implications for sterile neutrinos and LSND in particular.
We consider Big Bang nucleosynthesis and the cosmic microwave background when both the neutrino temperature and neutrino number are allowed to vary from their standard values. The neutrino temperature is assumed to differ from its standard model value by a fixed factor from Big Bang nucleosynthesis up to the present. In this scenario, the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, $N_{\rm eff}^{\rm CMB}$, derived from observations of the cosmic microwave background is not equal to the true number of neutrinos, $N_ν$. We determine the element abundances predicted by Big Bang nucleosyn…
Sterile neutrinos with mass ~1 eV and order 10% mixing with active neutrinos have been proposed as a solution to anomalies in neutrino oscillation data, but are tightly constrained by cosmological limits. It was recently shown that these constraints are avoided if sterile neutrinos couple to a new MeV-scale gauge boson A'. However, even this scenario is restricted by structure formation constraints when A'-mediated collisional processes lead to efficient active-to-sterile neutrino conversion after neutrinos have decoupled. In view of this, we reevaluate in this paper the viability of sterile n…
We study cosmological models that contain sterile neutrinos with eV-range masses as suggested by reactor and short-baseline oscillation data. We confront these models with both precision cosmological data (probing the CMB decoupling epoch) and light-element abundances (probing the BBN epoch). In the minimal LambdaCDM model, such sterile neutrinos are strongly disfavoured by current data because they contribute too much hot dark matter. However, if the cosmological framework is extended to include also additional relativistic degrees of freedom -- beyond the three standard neutrinos and the put…
Existing and planned neutrino detectors, sensitive in the energy regime from 10^{17} eV to 10^{23} eV, offer opportunities for particle physics and cosmology. In this contribution, we discuss particularly the possibilities to infer information about physics beyond the Standard Model at center-of-mass energies beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider, as well as to detect big bang relic neutrinos via absorption dips in the observed neutrino spectra.
Upper limits on neutrino masses from cosmology have been reported recently to reach the impressive sub-eV level, which is competitive with future terrestrial neutrino experiments. In this brief overview of the latest limits from cosmology I point out some of the caveats that should be borne in mind when interpreting the significance of these limits.
Present cosmological observations yield an upper bound on the neutrino mass which is significantly stronger than laboratory bounds. However, the exact value of the cosmological bound is model dependent and therefore less robust. Here, I review the current status of cosmological neutrino mass bounds and also discuss implications for sterile neutrinos and LSND in particular.