English

Reconstruction of the neutrino mass as a function of redshift

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2021-12-22 v2 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We reconstruct the neutrino mass as a function of redshift, z, from current cosmological data using both standard binned priors and linear spline priors with variable knots. Using cosmic microwave background temperature, polarization and lensing data, in combination with distance measurements from baryonic acoustic oscillations and supernovae, we find that the neutrino mass is consistent with mν(z)\sum m_\nu(z) = const. We obtain a larger bound on the neutrino mass at low redshifts coinciding with the onset of dark energy domination, mν(z=0)\sum m_\nu(z = 0) < 1.46 eV (95% CL). This result can be explained either by the well-known degeneracy between mν\sum m_\nu and ΩΛ\Omega_\Lambda at low redshifts, or by models in which neutrino masses are generated very late in the Universe. We finally convert our results into cosmological limits for models with non-relativistic neutrino decay and find mν\sum m_\nu < 0.21 eV (95% CL), which would be out of reach for the KATRIN experiment.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2102.13618,
  title  = {Reconstruction of the neutrino mass as a function of redshift},
  author = {Christiane S. Lorenz and Lena Funcke and Matthias Löffler and Erminia Calabrese},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.13618},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

18 pages, 4 figures, includes updates to match the version accepted by Phys. Rev. D