# Inflation meets neutrinos

## TL;DR

This paper explores how introducing a light scalar mediator in the neutrino sector can relax inflationary model constraints and proposes IceCube as a probe for these new neutrino interactions.

## Contribution

It presents a novel extension of the neutrino sector with a light scalar mediator that impacts inflationary constraints and suggests a new way to test this via astrophysical neutrino interactions.

## Key findings

- Extended neutrino models relax inflationary constraints.
- IceCube can probe new neutrino interactions across relevant parameters.
- Potential to open new regions in inflationary parameter space.

## Abstract

Constraints on inflationary models typically assume only the standard models of cosmology and particle physics. By extending the neutrino sector to include a new interaction with a light scalar mediator ($m_{\phi}\sim$MeV), it is possible to relax these constraints, in particular via opening up regions of the parameter space of the spectral index $n_s$. These new interactions can be probed at IceCube via interactions of astrophysical neutrinos with the Cosmic Neutrino Background for nearly all of the relevant parameter space.