English

Scale and redshift dependent limits on cosmic neutrino properties

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2025-10-13 v2

Abstract

Cosmological neutrino mass and abundance measurements are reaching unprecedented precision. Testing their stability versus redshift and scale is a crucial issue, as it can serve as a guide for optimizing ongoing and future searches. Here, we perform such analyses, considering a number of redshift, scale, and redshift-and-scale nodes. Concerning the kk-space analysis of mν\sum m_\nu, CMB observations are crucial, as they lead the neutrino mass constraints. Interestingly, some data combinations suggest a non-zero value for the neutrino mass with 2σ2\sigma significance. The most constraining bound we find is mν<0.54\sum m_\nu<0.54 eV at 95%95\% CL in the [103,102][10^{-3}, 10^{-2}] hh/Mpc kk-bin, a limit that barely depends on the data combination. Regarding the redshift- and scale-dependent neutrino mass constraints, high redshifts (z>100z>100) and scales in the range [103,101][10^{-3}, 10^{-1}] hh/Mpc provide the best constraints. The least constraining bounds are obtained at very low redshifts [0,0.5][0,0.5] and also at very small scales (k>0.1hk>0.1\, h/Mpc), due to the absence of observations. Highly relevant is the case of the [100,1100][100, 1100], [102,101][10^{-2}, 10^{-1}] hh/Mpc redshift-scale bin, where a 22-3σ3\sigma evidence for a non-zero neutrino mass is obtained for all data combinations. The bound from CMB alone at 68%68\% CL is 0.630.24+0.200.63^{+0.20}_{-0.24} eV, and the one for the full dataset is 0.560.23+0.200.56^{+0.20}_{-0.23} eV, clearly suggesting a non-zero neutrino mass at these scales, possibly related to a deviation of the ISW amplitude in this redshift range. Concerning the analysis of NeffN_{\rm eff} in the kk-space, at intermediate scales ranging from k=103k=10^{-3} hh/Mpc to k=101k=10^{-1} hh/Mpc, accurate CMB data provide very strong bounds, the most robust one being Neff=3.09±0.14N_{\rm eff}=3.09\pm 0.14, comparable to the standard expected value without a kk-bin analysis. [abridged]

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.18745,
  title  = {Scale and redshift dependent limits on cosmic neutrino properties},
  author = {Deng Wang and Olga Mena and Eleonora Di Valentino and Stefano Gariazzo},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.18745},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

16 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Version accepted for publication in PRD

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:32:25.307Z