No Arabic abstract
When combining cosmological and oscillations results to constrain the neutrino sector, the question of the propagation of systematic uncertainties is often raised. We address this issue in the context of the derivation of an upper bound on the sum of the neutrino masses ($Sigma m_ u$) with recent cosmological data. This work is performed within the ${{mathrm{Lambda{CDM}}}}$ model extended to $Sigma m_ u$, for which we advocate the use of three mass-degenerate neutrinos. We focus on the study of systematic uncertainties linked to the foregrounds modelling in CMB data analysis, and on the impact of the present knowledge of the reionisation optical depth. This is done through the use of different likelihoods built from Planck data. Limits on $Sigma m_ u$ are derived with various combinations of data, including the latest Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and Type Ia Supernovae (SN) results. We also discuss the impact of the preference for current CMB data for amplitudes of the gravitational lensing distortions higher than expected within the ${{mathrm{Lambda{CDM}}}}$ model, and add the Planck CMB lensing. We then derive a robust upper limit: $Sigma m_ u< 0.17hbox{ eV at }95% hbox{CL}$, including 0.01 eV of foreground systematics. We also discuss the neutrino mass repartition and show that todays data do not allow one to disentangle normal from inverted hierarchy. The impact on the other cosmological parameters is also reported, for different assumptions on the neutrino mass repartition, and different high and low multipole CMB likelihoods.
For a robust interpretation of upcoming observations from PLANCK and LHC experiments it is imperative to understand how the inflationary dynamics of a non-minimally coupled Higgs scalar field with gravity may affect the determination of the inflationary observables. We make a full proper analysis of the WMAP7+SN+BAO dataset in the context of the non-minimally coupled Higgs inflation field with gravity. For the central value of the top quark pole mass m_T=171.3 GeV, the fit of the inflation model with non-minimally coupled Higgs scalar field leads to the Higgs boson mass between 143.7 and 167 GeV (95% CL). We show that the inflation driven by a non-minimally coupled scalar field to the Einstein gravity leads to significant constraints on the scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio when compared with the similar constraints tensor to from the standard inflation with minimally coupled scalar field. We also show that an accurate reconstruction of the Higgs potential in terms of inflationary observables requires an improved accuracy of other parameters of the Standard Model of particle physics as the top quark mass and the effective QCD coupling constant.
We demonstrate the impact on forecasted neutrino mass constraints of extending galaxy clustering and CMB lensing predictions from linear to next-to-leading-order power spectra. The redshift-space 1-loop power spectrum model we adopt requires an additional four free bias parameters, a velocity bias parameter and two new stochastic parameters. These additional nuisance parameters appreciably weaken the constraints on $M_ u$. CMB lensing plays a significant role in helping to alleviate these degeneracies and tighten the final constraints. The constraint on the optical depth to reionisation $tau$ has a strong effect on the constraint on $M_ u$, but only when CMB lensing is included in the analysis to keep the degeneracies with the nuisance parameters under control. We also extract constraints when 1) using the BAO signature only as a distance probe, and 2) isolating the scale-dependence of the power spectrum, which, as shown in previous work, provides a cosmology-independent probe of $M_ u$. All constraints except the latter remain strongly sensitive to the assumption of a flat $Lambda$CDM universe. We perform an analysis of the magnitude of the shift introduced in the inferred $M_ u$ value when neglecting nonlinear corrections, and show that, for a Euclid-like survey, this shift becomes roughly equal to the 1$sigma$ constraint itself even with a conservative cut-off scale of $k_{max} = 0.1~h~{rm Mpc}^{-1}$. We also perform a calculation of the appropriate expected bias in neutrino mass caused by not including the next, 2-loop order and expect a shift of only about 20% of the 1$sigma$ error for $k_{max}=0.2~h~{rm Mpc}^{-1}$ in a Euclid-like survey.
We present here up-to-date neutrino mass limits exploiting the most recent cosmological data sets. By making use of the Cosmic Microwave Background temperature fluctuation and polarization measurements, Supernovae Ia luminosity distances, Baryon Acoustic Oscillation observations and determinations of the growth rate parameter, we are able to set the most constraining bound to date, $sum m_ u<0.09$ eV at $95%$~CL. This very tight limit is obtained without the assumption of any prior on the value of the Hubble constant and highly compromises the viability of the inverted mass ordering as the underlying neutrino mass pattern in nature. The results obtained here further strengthen the case for very large multitracer spectroscopic surveys as unique laboratories for cosmological relics, such as neutrinos: that would be the case of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey and of the Euclid mission.
If active neutrinos undergo non-standard (`secret) interactions (NS$ u$I) the cosmological evolution of the neutrino fluid might be altered, leaving an imprint in cosmological observables. We use the latest publicly available CMB data from Planck to constrain NS$ u$I inducing $ u- u$ scattering, under the assumption that the mediator $phi$ of the secret interaction is very light. We find that the effective coupling constant of the interaction, $g_mathrm{eff}^4 equiv langle sigma vrangle T_ u^2$, is constrained at $< 2.35times10^{-27}$ (95% credible interval), which stregthens to $g_mathrm{eff}^4 < 1.64times10^{-27}$ when Planck non-baseline small-scale polarization is considered. Our findings imply that after decoupling at $Tsimeq 1$ MeV, cosmic neutrinos are free streaming at redshifts $z>3800$, or $z>2300$ if small-scale polarization is included. These bounds are only marginally improved when data from geometrical expansion probes are included in the analysis to complement Planck. We also find that the tensions between CMB and low-redshift measurements of the expansion rate $H_0$ and the amplitude of matter fluctuations $sigma_8$ are not significantly reduced. Our results are independent on the underlying particle physics model as long as $phi$ is very light. Considering a model with Majorana neutrinos and a pseudoscalar mediator we find that the coupling constant $g$ of the secret interaction is constrained at $lesssim 7times 10^{-7}$. By further assuming that the pseudoscalar interaction comes from a dynamical realization of the see-saw mechanism, as in Majoron models, we can bound the scale of lepton number breaking $v_sigma$ as $gtrsim (1.4times 10^{6})m_ u$.
We probe the systematic uncertainties from 113 Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) in the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) sample along with 197 SN Ia from a combination of low-redshift surveys. The companion paper by Rest et al. (2013) describes the photometric measurements and cosmological inferences from the PS1 sample. The largest systematic uncertainty stems from the photometric calibration of the PS1 and low-z samples. We increase the sample of observed Calspec standards from 7 to 10 used to define the PS1 calibration system. The PS1 and SDSS-II calibration systems are compared and discrepancies up to ~0.02 mag are recovered. We find uncertainties in the proper way to treat intrinsic colors and reddening produce differences in the recovered value of w up to 3%. We estimate masses of host galaxies of PS1 supernovae and detect an insignificant difference in distance residuals of the full sample of 0.037pm0.031 mag for host galaxies with high and low masses. Assuming flatness in our analysis of only SNe measurements, we find $w = {-1.120^{+0.360}_{-0.206}textrm{(Stat)} ^{+0.269}_{-0.291}textrm{(Sys)}}$. With additional constraints from BAO, CMB(Planck) and H0 measurements, we find $w = -1.166^{+0.072}_{-0.069}$ and $Omega_M=0.280^{+0.013}_{-0.012}$ (statistical and systematic errors added in quadrature). Significance of the inconsistency with $w=-1$ depends on whether we use Planck or WMAP measurements of the CMB: $w_{textrm{BAO+H0+SN+WMAP}}=-1.124^{+0.083}_{-0.065}$.