CFHTLS weak-lensing constraints on the neutrino masses

TL;DR

This study combines cosmic shear and other cosmological data to constrain neutrino masses, setting an upper limit of 0.54 eV at 95% confidence, but systematic uncertainties affect the preference for massive neutrinos.

Contribution

It provides the first combined cosmological constraint on neutrino masses using CFHTLS weak lensing data with multiple datasets, highlighting the impact of systematics.

Findings

Upper limit of 0.54 eV on neutrino mass at 95% confidence

Lower limit of 0.03 eV on neutrino mass

Preference for massive neutrinos disappears when systematics are included

Abstract

We use measurements of cosmic shear from CFHTLS, combined with WMAP-5 cosmic microwave background anisotropy data, baryonic acoustic oscillations from SDSS and 2dFGRS and supernovae data from SNLS and Gold-set, to constrain the neutrino mass. We obtain a 95% confidence level upper limit of 0.54 eV for the sum of the neutrino masses, and a lower limit of 0.03 eV. The preference for massive neutrinos vanishes when shear-measurement systematics are included in the analysis.