English

Precision calculation of $N_{\text{eff}}$ with Neutrino Direct Simulation Monte Carlo

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2025-11-26 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

Neutrino Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (ν\nuDSMC) is a Monte Carlo method for solving the neutrino Boltzmann equation in the early Universe, designed to track the evolution of cosmic neutrinos across a wide range of cosmological scenarios. We develop a complete ν\nuDSMC solver that consistently incorporates the effects of the electron mass, three-flavour neutrino oscillations, and finite-temperature QED corrections to the thermodynamics of the electromagnetic plasma. As a first application, we perform a high-precision calculation of neutrino decoupling in the standard cosmological model and obtain Neff=3.0439±0.0006N_{\text{eff}} = 3.0439 \pm 0.0006, in excellent agreement with state-of-the-art results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2508.08379,
  title  = {Precision calculation of $N_{\text{eff}}$ with Neutrino Direct Simulation Monte Carlo},
  author = {Oleksii Ihnatenko and Maksym Ovchynnikov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.08379},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Version accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.D