Related papers: Neff in the Standard Model at NLO is 3.043
We compute the dominant QED correction to the neutrino-electron interaction rate in the vicinity of neutrino decoupling in the early universe, and estimate its impact on the effective number of neutrino species $N_{\rm eff}$ in cosmic…
We revisit several aspects of Standard Model physics at finite temperature that drive the theoretical value of the cosmological parameter $N_{\rm eff}$, the effective number of neutrinos in the early universe, away from 3. Our chief focus…
We present in this work a new calculation of the standard-model benchmark value for the effective number of neutrinos, $N_{\rm eff}^{\rm SM}$, that quantifies the cosmological neutrino-to-photon energy densities. The calculation takes into…
The number of relativistic species, $N_{\rm eff}$, has been precisely calculated in the standard model, and would be measured to the percent level by CMB-S4 in future. Neutral-current non-standard interactions would affect neutrino…
Interaction rates of neutrinos and antineutrinos within a QED plasma determine the dynamics of their decoupling in the early universe. We show how to define the relevant double-differential production, annihilation, and scattering rates at…
Precision measurements of the number of effective relativistic neutrino species and the primordial element abundances require accurate theoretical predictions for early Universe observables in the Standard Model and beyond. Given the…
We study the distortions of equilibrium spectra of relic neutrinos due to the interactions with electrons, positrons, and neutrinos in the early Universe. We solve the integro-differential kinetic equations for the neutrino density matrix,…
The neutrino energy density of the Universe can be conveniently parametrized in terms of the so-called effective number of neutrinos, N_nu^eff. This parameter enters in several cosmological observables. In particular it is an important…
Cosmological determinations of the number of relativistic neutrino species, $N^{ }_{\rm eff}$, are becoming increasingly accurate, and further improvements are expected both from CMB and BBN data. Given this context, we update the…
The vast majority of extensions of the Standard Model affecting the number of effective relativistic neutrino species ($N_{\rm eff}$) do so additively, namely, they enhance this quantity with some light state contributing to dark radiation.…
Recent indications from both particle physics and cosmology suggest the existence of more than three neutrino species. In cosmological analyses the effects of neutrino mass and number of species can in principle be disentangled for fixed…
Motivated by precision computations of neutrino decoupling at MeV temperatures, we show how QED corrections to the thermal neutrino interaction rate can be related to the electron-positron spectral function as well as an effective…
We consider the decoupling of neutrinos in the early Universe in presence of non-standard neutral current neutrino-electron interactions (NSI). We first discuss a semi-analytical approach to solve the relevant kinetic equations and then…
The number of effective relativistic neutrino species represents a fundamental probe of the thermal history of the early Universe, and as such of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Traditional approaches to the neutrino decoupling are…
We study the decoupling process of neutrinos in the early universe in the presence of three-flavour oscillations. The evolution of the neutrino spectra is found by solving the corresponding momentum-dependent kinetic equations for the…
In the primordial Universe, neutrino decoupling occurs only slightly before electron-positron annihilations. This leads notably to an increased neutrino energy density compared to the standard instantaneous decoupling approximation,…
Any light relic which was in thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model before it freezes out results in a shift in the effective number of neutrino species, $N_{eff}$. This quantity is being measured with increasing precision, and planned…
We present a first assessment of how the previously unexplored effect of positronium formation can impact on the value of the effective number of neutrino species in the Standard Model, $N_{\rm eff}^{\rm SM}$. Adopting a Yukawa form for the…
The effective number of neutrino species, $N_{\rm eff}$, serves as a key fitting parameter extensively employed in cosmological studies. In this work, we point out a fundamental inconsistency in the conventional treatment of $N_{\rm eff}$…
Neutrino Direct Simulation Monte Carlo ($\nu$DSMC) 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.…