Generalized Boltzmann hierarchy for massive neutrinos in cosmology

TL;DR

This paper introduces the generalized Boltzmann hierarchy (GBH), an efficient alternative for modeling massive neutrinos in cosmology, reducing computational complexity while maintaining high accuracy in transfer function calculations.

Contribution

The paper proposes the GBH, a new hierarchy that integrates out momentum dependence, simplifying neutrino calculations in cosmological Boltzmann solvers.

Findings

GBH achieves ≤0.5% accuracy in neutrino density contrast transfer functions.

GBH reduces computational complexity compared to traditional methods.

Proof-of-principle demonstrated with a toy code.

Abstract

Boltzmann solvers are an important tool for the computation of cosmological observables in the linear regime. In the presence of massive neutrinos, they involve solving the Boltzmann equation followed by an integration in momentum space to arrive at the desired fluid properties, a procedure which is known to be computationally slow. In this work we introduce the so-called generalized Boltzmann hierarchy (GBH) for massive neutrinos in cosmology, an alternative to the usual Boltzmann hierarchy, where the momentum dependence is integrated out leaving us with a two-parameter infinite set of ordinary differential equations. Along with the usual expansion in multipoles, there is now also an expansion in higher velocity weight integrals of the distribution function. Using a toy code, we show that the GBH produces the density contrast neutrino transfer function to a $\lesssim 0.5\%$ accuracy at both large and intermediate scales compared to the neutrino free-streaming scale, thus providing a proof-of-principle for the GBH. We comment on the implementation of the GBH in a state of the art Boltzmann solver.