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Archidiacono, M., Gariazzo, S., Giunti, C., Hannestad, S., & Tram, T. (2020). Sterile neutrino self-interactions: H-0 tension and short-baseline anomalies. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 12(12), 029–20pp.
Abstract: Sterile neutrinos with a mass in the eV range have been invoked as a possible explanation of a variety of short baseline (SBL) neutrino oscillation anomalies. However, if one considers neutrino oscillations between active and sterile neutrinos, such neutrinos would have been fully thermalised in the early universe, and would be therefore in strong conflict with cosmological bounds. In this study we first update cosmological bounds on the mass and energy density of eV-scale sterile neutrinos. We then perform an updated study of a previously proposed model in which the sterile neutrino couples to a new light pseudoscalar degree of freedom. Consistently with previous analyses, we find that the model provides a good fit to all cosmological data and allows the high value of H-0 measured in the local universe to be consistent with measurements of the cosmic microwave background. However, new high l polarisation data constrain the sterile neutrino mass to be less than approximately 1 eV in this scenario. Finally, we combine the cosmological bounds on the pseudoscalar model with a Bayesian inference analysis of SBL data and conclude that only a sterile mass in narrow ranges around 1 eV remains consistent with both cosmology and SBL data.
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Barenboim, G., Chen, J. Z., Hannestad, S., Oldengott, I. M., Tram, T., & Wong, Y. Y. Y. (2021). Invisible neutrino decay in precision cosmology. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 087–53pp.
Abstract: We revisit the topic of invisible neutrino decay in the precision cosmological context, via a first-principles approach to understanding the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure phenomenology of such a non-standard physics scenario. Assuming an effective Lagrangian in which a heavier standard-model neutrino nu(H) couples to a lighter one nu(l) and a massless scalar particle phi via a Yukawa interaction, we derive from first principles the complete set of Boltzmann equations, at both the spatially homogeneous and the firstorder inhomogeneous levels, for the phase space densities of nu(H), nu(l), and phi in the presence of the relevant decay and inverse decay processes. With this set of equations in hand, we perform a critical survey of recent works on cosmological invisible neutrino decay in both limits of decay while nu(H) is ultra-relativistic and non-relativistic. Our two main findings are: (i) in the non-relativistic limit, the effective equations of motion used to describe perturbations in the neutrino-scalar system in the existing literature formally violate momentum conservation and gauge invariance, and (ii) in the ultra-relativistic limit, exponential damping of the anisotropic stress does not occur at the commonly-used rate Gamma(T) = (1/tau(0))( m(nu H)/E-nu H)(3), but at a rate similar to (1/ tau(0))(m(nu H)/E-nu H)(5). Both results are model-independent. The impact of the former finding on the cosmology of invisible neutrino decay is likely small. The latter, however, implies a significant revision of the cosmological limit on the neutrino lifetime tau(0) from tau(old)(0) greater than or similar to 1.2 x 10(9) s (m(nu H)/50 meV)(3) to tau(0) greater than or similar to (4 x 10(5) -> 4 x 10(6)) s (m(nu H)/50 meV)(5).
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Di Valentino, E., Mena, O., Pan, S., Visinelli, L., Yang, W. Q., Melchiorri, A., et al. (2021). In the realm of the Hubble tension – a review of solutions. Class. Quantum Gravity, 38(15), 153001–110pp.
Abstract: The simplest ΛCDM model provides a good fit to a large span of cosmological data but harbors large areas of phenomenology and ignorance. With the improvement of the number and the accuracy of observations, discrepancies among key cosmological parameters of the model have emerged. The most statistically significant tension is the 4 sigma to 6 sigma disagreement between predictions of the Hubble constant, H (0), made by the early time probes in concert with the 'vanilla' ΛCDM cosmological model, and a number of late time, model-independent determinations of H (0) from local measurements of distances and redshifts. The high precision and consistency of the data at both ends present strong challenges to the possible solution space and demands a hypothesis with enough rigor to explain multiple observations-whether these invoke new physics, unexpected large-scale structures or multiple, unrelated errors. A thorough review of the problem including a discussion of recent Hubble constant estimates and a summary of the proposed theoretical solutions is presented here. We include more than 1000 references, indicating that the interest in this area has grown considerably just during the last few years. We classify the many proposals to resolve the tension in these categories: early dark energy, late dark energy, dark energy models with 6 degrees of freedom and their extensions, models with extra relativistic degrees of freedom, models with extra interactions, unified cosmologies, modified gravity, inflationary models, modified recombination history, physics of the critical phenomena, and alternative proposals. Some are formally successful, improving the fit to the data in light of their additional degrees of freedom, restoring agreement within 1-2 sigma between Planck 2018, using the cosmic microwave background power spectra data, baryon acoustic oscillations, Pantheon SN data, and R20, the latest SH0ES Team Riess, et al (2021 Astrophys. J. 908 L6) measurement of the Hubble constant (H (0) = 73.2 +/- 1.3 km s(-1) Mpc(-1) at 68% confidence level). However, there are many more unsuccessful models which leave the discrepancy well above the 3 sigma disagreement level. In many cases, reduced tension comes not simply from a change in the value of H (0) but also due to an increase in its uncertainty due to degeneracy with additional physics, complicating the picture and pointing to the need for additional probes. While no specific proposal makes a strong case for being highly likely or far better than all others, solutions involving early or dynamical dark energy, neutrino interactions, interacting cosmologies, primordial magnetic fields, and modified gravity provide the best options until a better alternative comes along.
Keywords: cosmological parameters; cosmology; dark energy; Hubble constant
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Yang, W. Q., Pan, S., Di Valentino, E., Mena, O., & Melchiorri, A. (2021). 2021-H-0 odyssey: closed, phantom and interacting dark energy cosmologies. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 008–21pp.
Abstract: Up-to-date cosmological data analyses have shown that (sigma) a closed universe is preferred by the Planck data at more than 99% CL, and (b) interacting scenarios offer a very compelling solution to the Hubble constant tension. In light of these two recent appealing scenarios, we consider here an interacting dark matter-dark energy model with a non-zero spatial curvature component and a freely varying dark energy equation of state in both the quintessential and phantom regimes. When considering Cosmic Microwave Background data only, a phantom and closed universe can perfectly alleviate the Hubble tension, without the necessity of a coupling among the dark sectors. Accounting for other possible cosmological observations compromises the viability of this very attractive scenario as a global solution to current cosmological tensions, either by spoiling its effectiveness concerning the H-0 problem, as in the case of Supernovae Ia data, or by introducing a strong disagreement in the preferred value of the spatial curvature, as in the case of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations.
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Gariazzo, S., Gerbino, M., Brinckmann, T., Lattanzi, M., Mena, O., Schwetz, T., et al. (2022). Neutrino mass and mass ordering: no conclusive evidence for normal ordering. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 010–18pp.
Abstract: The extraction of the neutrino mass ordering is one of the major challenges in particle physics and cosmology, not only for its implications for a fundamental theory of mass generation in nature, but also for its decisive role in the scale of future neutrinoless double beta decay experimental searches. It has been recently claimed that current oscillation, beta decay and cosmological limits on the different observables describing the neutrino mass parameter space provide robust decisive Bayesian evidence in favor of the normal ordering of the neutrino mass spectrum [1]. We further investigate these strong claims using a rich and wide phenomenology, with different sampling techniques of the neutrino parameter space. Contrary to the findings of Jimenez et al. [1], no decisive evidence for the normal mass ordering is found. Neutrino mass ordering analyses must rely on priors and parameterizations that are ordering-agnostic: robust results should be regarded as those in which the preference for the normal neutrino mass ordering is driven exclusively by the data, while we find a difference of up to a factor of 33 in the Bayes factors among the different priors and parameterizations exploited here. An ordering-agnostic prior would be represented by the case of parameterizations sampling over the two mass splittings and a mass scale, or those sampling over the individual neutrino masses via normal prior distributions only. In this regard, we show that the current significance in favor of the normal mass ordering should be taken as 2.7 sigma (i.e. moderate evidence), mostly driven by neutrino oscillation data. Let us stress that, while current data favor NO only mildly, we do not exclude the possibility that this may change in the future. Eventually, upcoming oscillation and cosmological data may (or may not) lead to a more significant exclusion of IO.
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Capozzi, F., Ferreira, R. Z., Lopez-Honorez, L., & Mena, O. (2023). CMB and Lyman-alpha constraints on dark matter decays to photons. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 06(6), 060–23pp.
Abstract: Dark matter energy injection in the early universe modifies both the ionization history and the temperature of the intergalactic medium. In this work, we improve the CMB bounds on sub-keV dark matter and extend previous bounds from Lyman-& alpha; observations to the same mass range, resulting in new and competitive constraints on axion-like particles (ALPs) decaying into two photons. The limits depend on the underlying reionization history, here accounted self-consistently by our modified version of the publicly available DarkHistory and CLASS codes. Future measurements such as the ones from the CMB-S4 experiment may play a crucial, leading role in the search for this type of light dark matter candidates.
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Zhai, Y. J., Giare, W., van de Bruck, C., Di Valentino, E., Mena, O., & Nunes, R. C. (2023). A consistent view of interacting dark energy from multiple CMB probes. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 032–16pp.
Abstract: We analyze a cosmological model featuring an interaction between dark energy and dark matter in light of the measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background released by three independent experiments: the most recent data by the Planck satellite and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, and WMAP (9-year data). We show that different combinations of the datasets provide similar results, always favoring an interacting dark sector with a 95% C.L. significance in the majority of the cases. Remarkably, such a preference remains consistent when cross-checked through independent probes, while always yielding a value of the expansion rate H0 consistent with the local distance ladder measurements. We investigate the source of this preference by scrutinizing the angular power spectra of temperature and polarization anisotropies as measured by different experiments.
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Forconi, M., Ruchika, Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., & Menci, N. (2023). Do the early galaxies observed by JWST disagree with Planck's CMB polarization measurements? J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 10(10), 012–16pp.
Abstract: The recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope have led to a surprising discovery of a significant density of massive galaxies with masses of M >= 10(10.5)M(circle dot) at redshifts of approximately z similar to 10. This corresponds to a stellar mass density of roughly rho* similar to 10(6)M(circle dot) Mpc(-3). Despite making conservative assumptions regarding galaxy formation, this finding may not be compatible with the standard.CDM cosmology that is favored by observations of CMB Anisotropies from the Planck satellite. In this paper, we confirm the substantial discrepancy with Planck's results within the.CDM framework. Assuming a value of is an element of = 0.2 for the efficiency of converting baryons into stars, we indeed find that the.CDM model is excluded at more than 99.7% confidence level (C.L.). An even more significant exclusion is found for is an element of similar to 0.1, while a better agreement, but still in tension at more than 95%, is obtained for is an element of = 0.32. This tension, as already discussed in the literature, could arise either from systematics in the JWST measurements or from new physics. Here, as a last-ditch effort, we point out that disregarding the large angular scale polarization obtained by Planck, which allows for significantly larger values of the matter clustering parameter sigma(8), could lead to better agreement between Planck and JWST within the.CDM framework. Assuming.CDM and no systematics in the current JWST results, this implies either an unknown systematic error in current large angular scale CMB polarization measurements or an unidentified physical mechanism that could lower the expected amount of CMB polarization produced during the epoch of reionization. Interestingly, the model compatible with Planck temperature-only data and JWST observation also favors a higher Hubble constant H-0 = 69.0 +/- 1.1 km/s/Mpc at 68% C.L., in better agreement with observations based on SN-Ia luminosity distances.
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Di Valentino, E., Melchiorri, A., Mena, O., & Vagnozzi, S. (2020). Interacting dark energy in the early 2020s: A promising solution to the H-0 and cosmic shear tensions. Phys. Dark Universe, 30, 100666–12pp.
Abstract: We examine interactions between dark matter and dark energy in light of the latest cosmological observations, focusing on a specific model with coupling proportional to the dark energy density. Our data includes Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements from the Planck 2018 legacy data release, late-time measurements of the expansion history from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and Supernovae Type Ia (SNeIa), galaxy clustering and cosmic shear measurements from the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results, and the 2019 local distance ladder measurement of the Hubble constant H-0 from the Hubble Space Telescope. Considering Planck data both in combination with BAO or SNeIa data reduces the H-0 tension to a level which could possibly be compatible with a statistical fluctuation. The very same model also significantly reduces the Omega(m) – sigma(8) tension between CMB and cosmic shear measurements. Interactions between the dark sectors of our Universe remain therefore a promising joint solution to these persisting cosmological tensions.
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Di Valentino, E. et al, & Mena, O. (2021). Cosmology intertwined III: f sigma(8) and S-8. Astropart Phys., 131, 102604–6pp.
Abstract: The standard A Cold Dark Matter cosmological model provides a wonderful fit to current cosmological data, but a few statistically significant tensions and anomalies were found in the latest data analyses. While these anomalies could be due to the presence of systematic errors in the experiments, they could also indicate the need for new physics beyond the standard model. In this Letter of Interest we focus on the tension between Planck data and weak lensing measurements and redshift surveys, in the value of the matter energy density Omega(m), and the amplitude sigma(8) (or the growth rate f sigma(8)) of cosmic structure. We list a few promising models for solving this tension, and discuss the importance of trying to fit multiple cosmological datasets with complete physical models, rather than fitting individual datasets with a few handpicked theoretical parameters.
Keywords: cosmological tensions; cosmological parameters
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