Neutrino decays as a natural explanation of the neutrino mass tension
Fuente:
arXiv
Guardado en:
| Autor principal: | |
|---|---|
| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2026
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | |
| Etiquetas: |
Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
|
| _version_ | 1866915715440705536 |
|---|---|
| author | Abellán, Guillermo Franco |
| author_facet | Abellán, Guillermo Franco |
| contents | A new tension is emerging between the tight cosmological upper bounds on the total neutrino mass ($\sum m_ν\lesssim 0.06 \, \rm{eV}$) and the lower limits from oscillation experiments, with potentially far-reaching implications for cosmology and particle physics. Neutrinos decaying into massless BSM particles with lifetimes $τ_ν\sim 0.01-1\, \rm{Gyr}$ represent a theoretically well-motivated mechanism to reconcile such measurements. Using DESI DR2 and CMB datasets, we show that such decays relax the bound on the total neutrino mass up to $\sum m_ν< 0.23 \, \rm{eV}$ (95%), restoring full agreement with oscillation data. We also present the first late-time cosmological analysis of neutrino decays into lighter neutrinos in a manner consistent with the measured mass splittings. In contrast to the decays into massless BSM particles, we find that this scenario only marginally alleviates - or even tightens - the cosmological neutrino mass bounds, depending on the mass ordering. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_04312 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Neutrino decays as a natural explanation of the neutrino mass tension Abellán, Guillermo Franco Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory A new tension is emerging between the tight cosmological upper bounds on the total neutrino mass ($\sum m_ν\lesssim 0.06 \, \rm{eV}$) and the lower limits from oscillation experiments, with potentially far-reaching implications for cosmology and particle physics. Neutrinos decaying into massless BSM particles with lifetimes $τ_ν\sim 0.01-1\, \rm{Gyr}$ represent a theoretically well-motivated mechanism to reconcile such measurements. Using DESI DR2 and CMB datasets, we show that such decays relax the bound on the total neutrino mass up to $\sum m_ν< 0.23 \, \rm{eV}$ (95%), restoring full agreement with oscillation data. We also present the first late-time cosmological analysis of neutrino decays into lighter neutrinos in a manner consistent with the measured mass splittings. In contrast to the decays into massless BSM particles, we find that this scenario only marginally alleviates - or even tightens - the cosmological neutrino mass bounds, depending on the mass ordering. |
| title | Neutrino decays as a natural explanation of the neutrino mass tension |
| topic | Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04312 |