Goldstone Bosons as Fractional Cosmic Neutrinos

TL;DR

The paper proposes that Goldstone bosons could account for the fractional cosmic neutrinos observed, potentially linked to dark matter conservation, impacting the effective number of neutrino types before recombination.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that Goldstone bosons can mimic fractional neutrinos and connects this to dark matter conservation, offering a new perspective on cosmic neutrino observations.

Findings

Goldstone bosons contribute about 0.39 to effective neutrino count

Goldstone bosons may be related to dark matter conservation

Implications for cosmic neutrino measurements before recombination

Abstract

It is suggested that Goldstone bosons may be masquerading as fractional cosmic neutrinos, contributing about 0.39 to what is reported as the effective number of neutrino types in the era before recombination. The broken symmetry associated with these Goldstone bosons is further speculated to be the conservation of the particles of dark matter.