Limits on Neutrino Mass from Cosmic Structure Formation

TL;DR

This paper derives upper limits on neutrino mass based on their impact on cosmic structure formation, considering various cosmological parameters within a hierarchical clustering framework.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on neutrino mass using cosmic structure formation data and matching conditions at different scales.

Findings

Neutrino mass must be less than 0.6 eV for Omega=0.3 and H_0<80 km/s/Mpc.

Allowing broader parameters, the neutrino mass limit increases to 0.9 eV.

The results constrain neutrino properties based on large-scale structure observations.

Abstract

We consider the effect of three species of neutrinos with nearly degenerate mass on the cosmic structure formation in a low matter-density universe within a hierarchical clustering scenario with a flat initial perturbation spectrum. The matching condition for fluctuation powers at the COBE scale and at the cluster scale leads to a strong upper limit on neutrino mass. For a flat universe with matter density parameter Omega=0.3, we obtain m_nu<0.6eV for the Hubble constant H_0<80km/s/Mpc. Allowing for the more generous parameter space limited by Omega<0.4, H_0<80km/s/Mpc and age t_0>11.5Gyr, the limit is 0.9eV.