6533b81ffe1ef96bd127875c
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Can we measure the neutrino mass hierarchy in the sky?
Thomas KitchingLicia VerdeLicia VerdeRaul JimenezRaul JimenezCarlos Pena-garaysubject
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)media_common.quotation_subjectFOS: Physical sciencesAstrophysics01 natural sciencesHigh Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)Double beta decay0103 physical sciencesNeutrinsNeutrinos010303 astronomy & astrophysicsWeak gravitational lensingmedia_commonPhysicsCosmologiaHierarchy (mathematics)010308 nuclear & particles physicsMatter power spectrumAstronomy and AstrophysicsCosmologyMAJORANAHigh Energy Physics - PhenomenologySkyAstronomiaNeutrinoDegeneracy (mathematics)Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysicsdescription
Cosmological probes are steadily reducing the total neutrino mass window, resulting in constraints on the neutrino-mass degeneracy as the most significant outcome. In this work we explore the discovery potential of cosmological probes to constrain the neutrino hierarchy, and point out some subtleties that could yield spurious claims of detection. This has an important implication for next generation of double beta decay experiments, that will be able to achieve a positive signal in the case of degenerate or inverted hierarchy of Majorana neutrinos. We find that cosmological experiments that nearly cover the whole sky could in principle distinguish the neutrino hierarchy by yielding 'substantial' evidence for one scenario over the another, via precise measurements of the shape of the matter power spectrum from large scale structure and weak gravitational lensing.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-01-01 |