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.

Abstract: We present an updated global fit of neutrino oscillation data in the simplest three-neutrino framework. In the present study we include up-to-date analyses from a number of experiments. Concerning the atmospheric and solar sectors, besides the data considered previously, we give updated analyses of IceCube DeepCore and Sudbury Neutrino Observatory data, respectively. We have also included the latest electron antineutrino data collected by the Daya Bay and RENO reactor experiments, and the long-baseline T2K and NO nu A measurements, as reported in the Neutrino 2020 conference. All in all, these new analyses result in more accurate measurements of theta (13), theta (12), Delta m212 and Delta m312. The best fit value for the atmospheric angle theta (23) lies in the second octant, but first octant solutions remain allowed at similar to 2.4 sigma. Regarding CP violation measurements, the preferred value of delta we obtain is 1.08 pi (1.58 pi) for normal (inverted) neutrino mass ordering. The global analysis still prefers normal neutrino mass ordering with 2.5 sigma statistical significance. This preference is milder than the one found in previous global analyses. These new results should be regarded as robust due to the agreement found between our Bayesian and frequentist approaches. Taking into account only oscillation data, there is a weak/moderate preference for the normal neutrino mass ordering of 2.00 sigma. While adding neutrinoless double beta decay from the latest Gerda, CUORE and KamLAND-Zen results barely modifies this picture, cosmological measurements raise the preference to 2.68 sigma within a conservative approach. A more aggressive data set combination of cosmological observations leads to a similar preference for normal with respect to inverted mass ordering, namely 2.70 sigma. This very same cosmological data set provides 2 sigma upper limits on the total neutrino mass corresponding to Sigma m(nu)< 0.12 (0.15) eV in the normal (inverted) neutrino mass ordering scenario. The bounds on the neutrino mixing parameters and masses presented in this up-to-date global fit analysis include all currently available neutrino physics inputs.

Abstract: Nonzero neutrino masses are required by the existence of flavour oscillations, with values of the order of at least 50 meV. We consider the gravitational clustering of relic neutrinos within the Milky Way, and used the N – one-body simulation technique to compute their density enhancement factor in the neighbourhood of the Earth with respect to the average cosmic density. Compared to previous similar studies, we pushed the simulation down to smaller neutrino masses, and included an improved treatment of the baryonic and dark matter distributions in the Milky Way. Our results are important for future experiments aiming at detecting the cosmic neutrino background, such as the Princeton Tritium Observatory for Light, Early-universe, Massive-neutrino Yield (PTOLEMY) proposal. We calculate the impact of neutrino clustering in the Milky Way on the expected event rate for a PTOLEMY-like experiment. We find that the effect of clustering remains negligible for the minimal normal hierarchy scenario, while it enhances the event rate by 10 to 20% (resp. a factor 1.7 to 2.5) for the minimal inverted hierarchy scenario (resp. a degenerate scenario with 150 meV masses). Finally we compute the impact on the event rate of a possible fourth sterile neutrino with a mass of 1.3 eV.

Abstract: The ordering of the neutrino masses is a crucial input for a deep understanding of flavor physics, and its determination may provide the key to establish the relationship among the lepton masses and mixings and their analogous properties in the quark sector. The extraction of the neutrino mass ordering is a data-driven field expected to evolve very rapidly in the next decade. In this review, we both analyse the present status and describe the physics of subsequent prospects. Firstly, the different current available tools to measure the neutrino mass ordering are described. Namely, reactor, long-baseline (accelerator and atmospheric) neutrino beams, laboratory searches for beta and neutrinoless double beta decays and observations of the cosmic background radiation and the large scale structure of the universe are carefully reviewed. Secondly, the results from an up-to-date comprehensive global fit are reported: the Bayesian analysis to the 2018 publicly available oscillation and cosmological data sets provides strong evidence for the normal neutrino mass ordering vs. the inverted scenario, with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations. This preference for the normal neutrino mass ordering is mostly due to neutrino oscillation measurements. Finally, we shall also emphasize the future perspectives for unveiling the neutrinomass ordering. In this regard, apart from describing the expectations from the aforementioned probes, we also focus on those arising from alternative and novel methods, as 21 cm cosmology, core-collapse supernova neutrinos and the direct detection of relic neutrinos.

Abstract: We present model-marginalized limits on mixed hot dark matter scenarios, which consider both thermal neutrinos and thermal QCD axions. A novel aspect of our analyses is the inclusion of small-scale cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the South Pole Telescope (SPT), together with those from the Planck satellite and baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) data. After marginalizing over a number of well-motivated nonminimal background cosmologies, the tightest 95% Confidential Level (CL) upper bound we obtain is 0.21 eV, both for P m nu and ma, from the combination of ACT, Planck and BAO measurements. Restricting the analyses to the standard ?CDM picture, we find P m nu < 0.16 eV and ma < 0.18 eV, both at 95% CL Interestingly, the best background cosmology is never found within the minimal ?CDM plus hot relics, regardless of the datasets exploited in the analyses. The combination of Planck with either BAO, SPT or ACT prefers a universe with a nonzero value of the running in the primordial power spectrum with strong evidence. Small-scale CMB probes, both alone and combined with BAO, either prefer, with substantial evidence, nonflat universes (as in the case of SPT) or a model with a time varying dark energy component (as in the case of ACT).