Testing an unstable cosmic neutrino background

TL;DR

This paper explores how cosmological observations can test the hypothesis of unstable relic neutrinos, potentially explaining anomalies like EDGES and ARCADE 2, and discusses the implications for new physics and model building.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that unstable cosmic neutrinos could resolve current cosmological anomalies and discusses how various observations can test this hypothesis.

Findings

DESI results constrain neutrino mass sum, hinting at instability.

21 cm cosmology can test neutrino decay and explain EDGES.

Relic neutrino decays could account for ARCADE 2 excess.

Abstract

I discuss how different cosmological observations can test the possibility that neutrinos might be unstable on cosmological times, resulting into an unstable cosmic neutrino background. I also discuss out how actually there are different independent anomalies intriguingly hint to such a possibility that would clearly point to new physics. I first focus on how the new DESI results place an upper bound on the sum of neutrino masses that starts to be in tension with the lower bound from neutrino oscillation experiments and how this tension could be easily solved assuming unstable relic neutrinos. Then I show how 21 cm cosmology allows to test radiative relic neutrino decays and how these could explain the controversial EDGES anomaly. I also discuss how the excess radio background and in particular the ARCADE 2 data can also be nicely explained by relic neutrino radiative decays. Finally, I point out the difficulties in building a model that does not clash with the upper limits on the effective magnetic moment coming from neutrino-electron scattering experiments and globular cluster stars.