Massive neutrino self-interactions and inflation

TL;DR

Incorporating massive neutrino self-interactions with a heavy mediator into cosmological models allows certain inflationary models, previously disfavoured, to be compatible with current data at 2σ confidence level.

Contribution

This work introduces a novel implementation of massive neutrino self-interactions in cosmological models, exploring both flavour-universal and flavour-specific cases, and assesses their impact on inflationary model viability.

Findings

Neutrino self-interactions can lower the scalar spectral index n_s.

Such interactions enable inflationary models to fit cosmological data at 2σ.

Current data supports certain inflationary models with neutrino self-interactions.

Abstract

Certain inflationary models like Natural inflation (NI) and Coleman-Weinberg inflation (CWI) are disfavoured by cosmological data in the standard $\Lambda\textrm{CDM}+r$ model (where $r$ is the scalar-to-tensor ratio), as these inflationary models predict the regions in the $n_s-r$ parameter space that are excluded by the cosmological data at more than 2$\sigma$ (here $n_s$ is the scalar spectral index). The same is true for single field inflationary models with an inflection point that can account for all or majority of dark matter in the form of PBHs (primordial black holes). Cosmological models incorporating strongly self-interacting neutrinos (with a heavy mediator) are, however, known to prefer lower $n_s$ values compared to the $\Lambda\rm CDM$ model. Considering such neutrino self-interactions can, thus, open up the parameter space to accommodate the above inflationary models. In this work, we implement the massive neutrino self-interactions with a heavy mediator in two different ways: flavour-universal (among all three neutrinos), and flavour-specific (involving only one neutrino species). We implement the new interaction in both scalar and tensor perturbation equations of neutrinos. Interestingly, we find that the current cosmological data can support the aforementioned inflationary models at 2$\sigma$ in the presence of such neutrino self-interactions.