MeV-scale reheating temperature and thermalization of oscillating neutrinos by radiative and hadronic decays of massive particles

TL;DR

This paper explores the lower limits on the reheating temperature of the universe around MeV scales, considering neutrino thermalization with effects of self-interactions and oscillations, constrained by big-bang nucleosynthesis data.

Contribution

It introduces the first detailed calculation of neutrino thermalization including self-interactions and oscillations for massive particle decays affecting reheating temperature limits.

Findings

Reheating temperature must be at least 1.8 MeV for radiative decays.

Reheating temperature must be at least 4-5 MeV for hadronic decays.

Constraints depend on decay mode and particle mass range.

Abstract

From a theoretical point of view, there is a strong motivation to consider an MeV-scale reheating temperature induced by long-lived massive particles with masses around the weak scale, decaying only through gravitational interaction. In this study, we investigate lower limits on the reheating temperature imposed by big-bang nucleosynthesis assuming both radiative and hadronic decays of such massive particles. For the first time, effects of neutrino self-interactions and oscillations are taken into account in the neutrino thermalization calculations. By requiring consistency between theoretical and observational values of light element abundances, we find that the reheating temperature should conservatively be $T_{\rm RH} \gtrsim 1.8$ MeV in the case of the 100% radiative decay, and $T_{\rm RH} \gtrsim$ 4-5 MeV in the case of the 100% hadronic decays for particle masses in the range of 10 GeV to 100 TeV.