WMAP 5-year constraints on lepton asymmetry and radiation energy density: Implications for Planck

In this paper we set bounds on the radiation content of the Universe and neutrino properties by using the WMAP-5 year CMB measurements complemented with most of the existing CMB and LSS data (WMAP5+All),imposing also self-consistent BBN constraints on the primordial helium abundance. We consider lepton asymmetric cosmological models parametrized by the neutrino degeneracy parameter and the variation of the relativistic degrees of freedom, due to possible other physical processes occurred between BBN and structure formation epochs. We find that WMAP5+All data provides strong bounds on helium mass fraction and neutrino degeneracy parameter that rivals the similar bounds obtained from the conservative analysis of the present data on helium abundance. We also find a strong correlation between the matter energy density and the redshift of matter-radiation equality, z_re, showing that we observe non-zero equivalent number of relativistic neutrinos mainly via the change of the of z_re, rather than via neutrino anisotropic stress claimed by the WMAP team. We forecast that the CMB temperature and polarization measurements observed with high angular resolutions and sensitivities by the future Planck satellite will reduce the errors on these parameters down to values fully consistent with the BBN bounds.

Constraints on non-thermal Dark Matter from Planck lensing extraction

Distortions of CMB temperature and polarization anisotropy maps caused by gravitational lensing, observable with high angular resolution and sensitivity, can be used to constrain the sterile neutrino mass, offering several advantages against the analysis based on the combination of CMB, LSS and Lyalpha forest power spectra. As the gravitational lensing effect depends on the matter distribution, no assumption on light-to-mass bias is required. In addition, unlike the galaxy clustering and Lyalpha forest power spectra, the projected gravitational potential power spectrum probes a larger range of angular scales, the non-linear corrections being required only at very small scales. Taking into account the changes in the time-temperature relation of the primordial plasma and the modification of the neutrino thermal potential, we compute the projected gravitational potential power spectrum and its correlation with the temperature in the presence of DM sterile neutrino. We show that the cosmological parameters are generally not biased when DM sterile neutrino is included. From this analysis we found a lower limit on DM sterile neutrino mass m_s >2.08 keV at 95% CL, consistent with the lower mass limit obtained from the combined analysis of CMB, SDSS 3D power spectrum and SDSS Lyalpha forest power spectrum ($m_{ u_s}>1.7$ keV). We conclude that although the information that can be obtained from lensing extraction is rather limited due to the high level of the lensing noise of Planck experiment, weak lensing of CMB offers a valuable alternative to constrain the dark matter sterile neutrino mass.