TY - JOUR AU - Hernandez, P. AU - Kekic, M. AU - Lopez-Pavon, J. PY - 2014 DA - 2014// TI - N_eff in low-scale seesaw models versus the lightest neutrino mass T2 - Phys. Rev. D JO - Physical Review D SP - 065033 EP - 12pp VL - 90 IS - 6 PB - Amer Physical Soc AB - We evaluate the contribution to N_eff of the extra sterile states in low-scale type I seesaw models (with three extra sterile states). We explore the full parameter space and find that at least two of the heavy states always reach thermalization in the early Universe, while the third one might not thermalize provided the lightest neutrino mass is below O(10(-3) eV). Constraints from cosmology therefore severely restrict the spectra of heavy states in the range 1 eV-100 MeV. The implications for neutrinoless double beta decay are also discussed. SN - 1550-7998 UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2961 UR - https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.065033 DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.90.065033 LA - English N1 - WOS:000344108100004 ID - Hernandez_etal2014 ER -