Cosmological neutrino mass detection: The best probe of neutrino lifetime

Future cosmological data may be sensitive to the effects of a finite sum of neutrino masses even as small as ~0.06 eV, the lower limit guaranteed by neutrino oscillation experiments. We show that a cosmological detection of neutrino mass at that level would improve by many orders of magnitude the existing limits on neutrino lifetime, and as a consequence on neutrino secret interactions with (quasi-)massless particles as in majoron models. On the other hand, neutrino decay may provide a way-out to explain a discrepancy <~ 0.1 eV between cosmic neutrino bounds and Lab data.Comment: 5 pages, 1 eps figure; clarifications and references added, improved discussion, conclusions unchanged. Matches version published in PR

The Nuclear Reactions in Standard BBN

Nowadays, the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) anisotropies studies accurately determine the baryon fraction omega_b, showing an overall and striking agreement with previous determinations of omega_b obtained from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). However, a deeper comparison of BBN predictions with the determinations of the primordial light nuclides abundances shows slight tensions, motivating an effort to further improve the accuracy of theoretical predictions, as well as to better evaluate systematics in both observations and nuclear reactions measurements. We present some results of an important step towards an increasing precision of BBN predictions, namely an updated and critical review of the nuclear network, and a new protocol to perform the nuclear data regression.Comment: 4 pp.,4figs. Few typos corrected and updated refs. to match the version appearing in the proceedings of Conference ``Nuclei in the Cosmos VIII'', Vancouver, BC, Canada, 19-23 Jul 2004, published in Nucl. Phys.

A robust upper limit on N_eff from BBN, circa 2011

We derive here a robust bound on the effective number of neutrinos from constraints on primordial nucleosynthesis yields of deuterium and helium. In particular, our results are based on very weak assumptions on the astrophysical determination of the helium abundance, namely that the minimum effect of stellar processing is to keep constant (rather than increase, as expected) the helium content of a low-metallicity gas. Using the results of a recent analysis of extragalactic HII regions as upper limit, we find that Delta Neff<= 1 at 95 % C.L., quite independently of measurements on the baryon density from cosmic microwave background anisotropy data and of the neutron lifetime input. In our approach, we also find that primordial nucleosynthesis alone has no significant preference for an effective number of neutrinos larger than the standard value. The ~2 sigma hint sometimes reported in the literature is thus driven by CMB data alone and/or is the result of a questionable regression protocol to infer a measurement of primordial helium abundance.Comment: 5 pages, 1 table, 1 figure. Minor improvements and extensions in the analysis, clarifications and reference added, conclusions slightly strengthened. Matches version published in Phys. Lett.

"Discrepant hardenings" in cosmic ray spectra: a first estimate of the effects on secondary antiproton and diffuse gamma-ray yields

Recent data from CREAM seem to confirm early suggestions that primary cosmic ray (CR) spectra at few TeV/nucleon are harder than in the 10-100 GeV range. Also, helium and heavier nuclei spectra appear systematically harder than the proton fluxes at corresponding energies. We note here that if the measurements reflect intrinsic features in the interstellar fluxes (as opposed to local effects) appreciable modifications are expected in the sub-TeV range for the secondary yields, such as antiprotons and diffuse gamma-rays. Presently, the ignorance on the origin of the features represents a systematic error in the extraction of astrophysical parameters as well as for background estimates for indirect dark matter searches. We find that the spectral modifications are appreciable above 100 GeV, and can be responsible for ~30% effects for antiprotons at energies close to 1 TeV or for gamma's at energies close to 300 GeV, compared to currently considered predictions based on simple extrapolation of input fluxes from low energy data. Alternatively, if the feature originates from local sources, uncorrelated spectral changes might show up in antiproton and high-energy gamma-rays, with the latter ones likely dependent from the line-of-sight.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Clarifications and references added, conclusions unchanged. Matches published versio

A loophole to the universal photon spectrum in electromagnetic cascades: application to the "cosmological lithium problem"

The standard theory of electromagnetic cascades onto a photon background predicts a quasi-universal shape for the resulting non-thermal photon spectrum. This has been applied to very disparate fields, including non-thermal big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN). However, once the energy of the injected photons falls below the pair-production threshold the spectral shape is very different, a fact that has been overlooked in past literature. This loophole may have important phenomenological consequences, since it generically alters the BBN bounds on non-thermal relics: for instance it allows to re-open the possibility of purely electromagnetic solutions to the so-called "cosmological lithium problem", which were thought to be excluded by other cosmological constraints. We show this with a proof-of-principle example and a simple particle physics model, compared with previous literature.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, typos corrected; matches version published in PRL. (Version 1 of this article was submitted to arxiv on Jan. 8th, kept on hold by arxiv moderators due to unspecified classification doubts for almost one month.

Bremsstrahlung gamma rays from light Dark Matter

We discuss the often-neglected role of bremsstrahlung processes on the interstellar gas in computing indirect signatures of Dark Matter (DM) annihilation in the Galaxy, particularly for light DM candidates in the phenomenologically interesting O(10) GeV mass range. Especially from directions close to the Galactic Plane, the expected gamma-ray spectrum is altered via two effects: directly, by the photons emitted in the bremsstrahlung process on the interstellar gas by energetic electrons which are among the DM annihilation byproducts; indirectly, by the modification of the same electron spectrum, due to the additional energy loss process in the diffusion-loss equation (e.g. the resulting inverse Compton emission is altered). We quantify the importance of the bremsstrahlung emission in the GeV energy range, showing that it is the dominant component of the gamma-ray spectrum for some cases. We also find that, in regions in which bremsstrahlung dominates energy losses, the related gamma-ray emission is only moderately sensitive to possible large variations in the gas density. Still, we stress that, for computing precise spectra in the (sub-)GeV range, it is important to obtain a reliable description of the inner Galaxy gas distribution as well as to compute self-consistently the gamma emission and the solution to the diffusion-loss equation. For example, these are crucial issues to quantify and interpret meaningfully gamma-ray map `residuals' in terms of (light) DM annihilations.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; references added, changed to match the published versio

Dark Matter annihilations in halos and high-redshift sources of reionization of the universe

It is well known that annihilations in the homogeneous fluid of dark matter (DM) can leave imprints in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy power spectrum. However, the relevance of DM annihilations in halos for cosmological observables is still subject to debate, with previous works reaching different conclusions on this point. Also, all previous studies used a single type of parameterization for the astrophysical reionization, and included no astrophysical source for the heating of the intergalactic medium. In this work, we revisit these problems. When standard approaches are adopted, we find that the ionization fraction does exhibit a very particular (and potentially constraining) pattern, but the currently measurable optical depth to reionization is left almost unchanged: In agreement with the most of the previous literature, for plausible halo models we find that the modification of the signal with respect to the one coming from annihilations in the smooth background is tiny, below cosmic variance within currently allowed parameter space. However, if different and probably more realistic treatments of the astrophysical sources of reionization and heating are adopted, a more pronounced effect of the DM annihilation in halos is possible. We thus conclude that within currently adopted baseline models the impact of the virialised DM structures cannot be uncovered by CMB power spectra measurements, but a larger impact is possible if peculiar models are invoked for the redshift evolution of the DM annihilation signal or different assumptions are made for the astrophysical contributions. A better understanding (both theoretical and observational) of the reionization and temperature history of the universe, notably via the 21 cm signal, seems the most promising way for using halo formation as a tool in DM searches, improving over the sensitivity of current cosmological probes.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures. v2: extended version (notably astrophysical source effects significantly expanded), references added, main conclusions unchanged. Matches version accepted by JCA

A fresh look at linear cosmological constraints on a decaying dark matter component

We consider a cosmological model in which a fraction $f$ of the Dark Matter (DM) is allowed to decay in an invisible relativistic component, and compute the resulting constraints on both the decay width (or inverse lifetime) $\Gamma$ and $f$ from purely gravitational arguments. We report a full derivation of the Boltzmann hierarchy, correcting a mistake in previous literature, and compute the impact of the decay --as a function of the lifetime-- on the CMB and matter power spectra. From CMB only, we obtain that no more than 3.8 % of the DM could have decayed in the time between recombination and today (all bounds quoted at 95 % CL). We also comment on the important application of this bound to the case where primordial black holes constitute DM, a scenario notoriously difficult to constrain. For lifetimes longer than the age of the Universe, the bounds can be cast as $f\Gamma < 6.3\times10^{-3}$ Gyr$^{-1}$. For the first time, we also checked that degeneracies with massive neutrinos are broken when information from the large scale structure is used. Even secondary effects like CMB lensing suffice to this purpose. Decaying DM models have been invoked to solve a possible tension between low redshift astronomical measurements of $\sigma_8$ and $\Omega_{\rm m}$ and the ones inferred by Planck. We reassess this claim finding that with the most recent BAO, HST and $\sigma_8$ data extracted from the CFHT survey, the tension is only slightly reduced despite the two additional free parameters, loosening the bound to $f\Gamma < 15.9\times10^{-3}$ Gyr$^{-1}$. The bound however improves to $f\Gamma < 5.9\times10^{-3}$ Gyr$^{-1}$ if only data consistent with the CMB are included. This highlights the importance of establishing whether the tension is due to real physical effects or unaccounted systematics, for settling the reach of achievable constraints on decaying DM.Comment: 30p, 11 figures, comments welcom

Lepton asymmetry and primordial nucleosynthesis in the era of precision cosmology

We calculate and display the primordial light-element abundances as a function of a neutrino degeneracy parameter \xi common to all flavors. It is the only unknown parameter characterizing the thermal medium at the primordial nucleosynthesis epoch. The observed primordial helium abundance Y_p is the most sensitive cosmic ``leptometer.'' Adopting the conservative Y_p error analysis of Olive and Skillman implies -0.04 \alt \xi \alt 0.07 whereas the errors stated by Izotov and Thuan imply \xi=0.0245+-0.0092 (1 sigma). Improved determinations of the baryon abundance have no significant impact on this situation. A determination of Y_p that reliably distinguishes between a vanishing or nonvanishing \xi is a crucial test of the cosmological standard assumption that sphaleron effects equilibrate the cosmic lepton and baryon asymmetries.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; minor changes, references added, replaced to match the published version in PRD (Brief Reports