First Constraint on the Neutrino-Induced Phase Shift in the BAO Spectrum

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Hauptverfasser: Baumann, Daniel, Beutler, Florian, Flauger, Raphael, Green, Daniel, Slosar, Anže, Vargas-Magaña, Mariana, Wallisch, Benjamin, Yèche, Christophe
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2018
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author Baumann, Daniel
Beutler, Florian
Flauger, Raphael
Green, Daniel
Slosar, Anže
Vargas-Magaña, Mariana
Wallisch, Benjamin
Yèche, Christophe
author_facet Baumann, Daniel
Beutler, Florian
Flauger, Raphael
Green, Daniel
Slosar, Anže
Vargas-Magaña, Mariana
Wallisch, Benjamin
Yèche, Christophe
contents The existence of the cosmic neutrino background is a fascinating prediction of the hot big bang model. These neutrinos were a dominant component of the energy density in the early universe and, therefore, played an important role in the evolution of cosmological perturbations. The energy density of the cosmic neutrino background has been measured using the abundances of light elements and the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). A complementary and more robust probe is a distinct shift in the temporal phase of sound waves in the primordial plasma which is produced by fluctuations in the neutrino density and has recently been detected in the CMB. In this paper, we report on the first constraint on this neutrino-induced phase shift in the spectrum of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) of the BOSS DR12 data. Constraining the acoustic scale using Planck data while marginalizing over the effects of neutrinos in the CMB, we find a non-zero phase shift at greater than 95\% confidence. We also demonstrate the robustness of this result in simulations and forecasts. Besides providing a new test of the cosmic neutrino background, our work is the first application of the BAO signal to early universe physics and a non-trivial confirmation of the standard cosmological history.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1803_10741
institution arXiv
publishDate 2018
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle First Constraint on the Neutrino-Induced Phase Shift in the BAO Spectrum
Baumann, Daniel
Beutler, Florian
Flauger, Raphael
Green, Daniel
Slosar, Anže
Vargas-Magaña, Mariana
Wallisch, Benjamin
Yèche, Christophe
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
The existence of the cosmic neutrino background is a fascinating prediction of the hot big bang model. These neutrinos were a dominant component of the energy density in the early universe and, therefore, played an important role in the evolution of cosmological perturbations. The energy density of the cosmic neutrino background has been measured using the abundances of light elements and the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). A complementary and more robust probe is a distinct shift in the temporal phase of sound waves in the primordial plasma which is produced by fluctuations in the neutrino density and has recently been detected in the CMB. In this paper, we report on the first constraint on this neutrino-induced phase shift in the spectrum of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) of the BOSS DR12 data. Constraining the acoustic scale using Planck data while marginalizing over the effects of neutrinos in the CMB, we find a non-zero phase shift at greater than 95\% confidence. We also demonstrate the robustness of this result in simulations and forecasts. Besides providing a new test of the cosmic neutrino background, our work is the first application of the BAO signal to early universe physics and a non-trivial confirmation of the standard cosmological history.
title First Constraint on the Neutrino-Induced Phase Shift in the BAO Spectrum
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.10741