Neutrino Mass from SZ Surveys

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how galaxy cluster Sunyaev-Zel'dovich surveys can precisely measure the total neutrino mass, highlighting the potential for sub-eV sensitivity with current and future experiments.

Contribution

It assesses the sensitivity of SZ cluster counts to neutrino mass and predicts measurement precision improvements with upcoming surveys and cosmic-variance-limited experiments.

Findings

Planck/SZ can determine neutrino mass with 0.06 eV precision

Future cosmic-variance-limited surveys could reduce uncertainty by two-thirds

Main modeling uncertainty lies in high-mass end of the cluster mass function

Abstract

The expected sensitivity of cluster SZ number counts to neutrino mass in the sub-eV range is assessed. We find that from the ongoing {\it Planck}/SZ measurements the (total) neutrino mass can be determined at a (1-sigma) precision of 0.06 eV, if the mass is in the range 0.1-0.3 eV, and the survey detection limit is set at the 5-sigma significance level. The mass uncertainty is predicted to be lower by a factor ~2/3, if a similar survey is conducted by a cosmic-variance-limited experiment, a level comparable to that projected if CMB lensing extraction is accomplished with the same experiment. At present, the main uncertainty in modeling cluster statistical measures reflects the difficulty in determining the mass function at the high-mass end.