Neutrino mass tension or suppressed growth rate of matter perturbations?

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Giarè, William, Mena, Olga, Specogna, Enrico, Di Valentino, Eleonora
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866914174268866560
author Giarè, William
Mena, Olga
Specogna, Enrico
Di Valentino, Eleonora
author_facet Giarè, William
Mena, Olga
Specogna, Enrico
Di Valentino, Eleonora
contents Assuming a minimal $Λ$CDM cosmology with three massive neutrinos, the joint analysis of Planck cosmic microwave background data, DESI baryon acoustic oscillations, and distance moduli measurements of Type Ia supernovae from the Pantheon+ sample sets an upper bound on the total neutrino mass, $\sum m_ν\lesssim 0.06$-$0.07$ eV, that lies barely above the lower limit from oscillation experiments. These constraints are mainly driven by mild differences in the inferred values of the matter density parameter across different probes that can be alleviated by introducing additional background-level degrees of freedom (e.g., by dynamical dark energy models). However, in this work we explore an alternative possibility. Since both $Ω_\mathrm{m}$ and massive neutrinos critically influence the growth of cosmic structures, we test whether the neutrino mass tension may originate from the way matter clusters, rather than from a breakdown of the $Λ$CDM expansion history. To this end, we introduce the growth index $γ$, which characterizes the rate at which matter perturbations grow. Deviations from the standard $Λ$CDM value ($γ\simeq 0.55$) can capture a broad class of models, including non-minimal dark sector physics and modified gravity. We show that allowing $γ$ to vary significantly relaxes the neutrino mass bounds to $\sum m_ν\lesssim 0.13$-$0.2$ eV, removing any tension with terrestrial constraints without altering the inferred value of $Ω_\mathrm{m}$. However, this comes at the cost of departing from standard growth predictions: to have $\sum m_ν\gtrsim 0.06$ eV one needs $γ> 0.55$, and we find a consistent preference for $γ> 0.55$ at the level of $\sim 2σ$. This preference increases to $\sim 2.5$-$3σ$ when a physically motivated prior $\sum m_ν\ge 0.06$ eV from oscillation experiments is imposed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_01848
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Neutrino mass tension or suppressed growth rate of matter perturbations?
Giarè, William
Mena, Olga
Specogna, Enrico
Di Valentino, Eleonora
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Assuming a minimal $Λ$CDM cosmology with three massive neutrinos, the joint analysis of Planck cosmic microwave background data, DESI baryon acoustic oscillations, and distance moduli measurements of Type Ia supernovae from the Pantheon+ sample sets an upper bound on the total neutrino mass, $\sum m_ν\lesssim 0.06$-$0.07$ eV, that lies barely above the lower limit from oscillation experiments. These constraints are mainly driven by mild differences in the inferred values of the matter density parameter across different probes that can be alleviated by introducing additional background-level degrees of freedom (e.g., by dynamical dark energy models). However, in this work we explore an alternative possibility. Since both $Ω_\mathrm{m}$ and massive neutrinos critically influence the growth of cosmic structures, we test whether the neutrino mass tension may originate from the way matter clusters, rather than from a breakdown of the $Λ$CDM expansion history. To this end, we introduce the growth index $γ$, which characterizes the rate at which matter perturbations grow. Deviations from the standard $Λ$CDM value ($γ\simeq 0.55$) can capture a broad class of models, including non-minimal dark sector physics and modified gravity. We show that allowing $γ$ to vary significantly relaxes the neutrino mass bounds to $\sum m_ν\lesssim 0.13$-$0.2$ eV, removing any tension with terrestrial constraints without altering the inferred value of $Ω_\mathrm{m}$. However, this comes at the cost of departing from standard growth predictions: to have $\sum m_ν\gtrsim 0.06$ eV one needs $γ> 0.55$, and we find a consistent preference for $γ> 0.55$ at the level of $\sim 2σ$. This preference increases to $\sim 2.5$-$3σ$ when a physically motivated prior $\sum m_ν\ge 0.06$ eV from oscillation experiments is imposed.
title Neutrino mass tension or suppressed growth rate of matter perturbations?
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01848