Towards a precision calculation of $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ in the Standard Model II: Neutrino decoupling in the presence of flavour oscillations and finite-temperature QED

Abstract

We present in this work a new calculation of the standard-model benchmark value for the effective number of neutrinos, $N_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\mathrm{SM}}$, that quantifies the cosmological neutrino-to-photon energy densities. The calculation takes into account neutrino flavour oscillations, finite-temperature effects in the quantum electrodynamics plasma to $\mathcal{O}(e^3)$, where $e$ is the elementary electric charge, and a full evaluation of the neutrino--neutrino collision integral. We provide furthermore a detailed assessment of the uncertainties in the benchmark $N_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\mathrm{SM}}$ value, through testing the value's dependence on (i)~optional approximate modelling of the weak collision integrals, (ii)~measurement errors in the physical parameters of the weak sector, and (iii)~numerical convergence, particularly in relation to momentum discretisation. Our new, recommended standard-model benchmark is $N_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\mathrm{SM}}=3.0440\pm 0.0002$, where the nominal uncertainty is attributed predominantly to errors incurred in the numerical solution procedure ($|\delta N_{\mathrm{eff}}|\sim 10^{-4}$), augmented by measurement errors in the solar mixing angle ${\sin }^2{\theta }_{12}$ ($|\delta N_{\mathrm{eff}}|\sim 10^{-4}$).

31 pages, 7 figures. Version accepted for publication in JCAP

References in corpus (10)

• The fate of hints: updated global analysis of three-flavor neutrino oscillations
• 2020 Global reassessment of the neutrino oscillation picture
• Relic neutrino decoupling with flavour oscillations revisited
• Neutrino decoupling including flavour oscillations and primordial nucleosynthesis
• A precision calculation of relic neutrino decoupling
• Thermalisation of sterile neutrinos in the early Universe in the 3+1 scheme with full mixing matrix
• Current and Future Neutrino Oscillation Constraints on Leptonic Unitarity
• Relic Neutrino Freeze-out: Dependence on Natural Constants
• Future cosmological sensitivity for hot dark matter axions
• Incomplete neutrino decoupling effect on big bang nucleosynthesis

Cited by in corpus (170)

• In the Realm of the Hubble tension $-$ a Review of Solutions
• DESI 2024 VI: Cosmological Constraints from the Measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
• Challenges for $\Lambda$CDM: An update
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Search for Signals from New Physics
• Euclid. I. Overview of the Euclid mission
• The $H_0$ Olympics: A fair ranking of proposed models
• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• Cosmological parameters derived from the final (PR4) Planck data release
• DESI 2024 VII: Cosmological Constraints from the Full-Shape Modeling of Clustering Measurements
• Primordial gravitational waves from NANOGrav: a broken power-law approach
• Probing Physics Beyond the Standard Model: Limits from BBN and the CMB Independently and Combined
• Updated Cosmological Constraints in Extended Parameter Space with Planck PR4, DESI Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, and Supernovae: Dynamical Dark Energy, Neutrino Masses, Lensing Anomaly, and the Hubble Tension
• Hints of Nonminimally Coupled Gravity in DESI 2024 Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Measurements
• Constraints on $\Lambda$CDM Extensions from the SPT-3G 2018 $EE$ and $TE$ Power Spectra
• Neutrino cosmology after DESI: tightest mass upper limits, preference for the normal ordering, and tension with terrestrial observations
• Cosmology From CMB Lensing and Delensed EE Power Spectra Using 2019-2020 SPT-3G Polarization Data
• Neutrino Flavor Conversions in High-Density Astrophysical and Cosmological Environments
• Cosmological Bound on the QCD Axion Mass, Redux
• The Hubble Tension as a Hint of Leptogenesis and Neutrino Mass Generation
• Massive neutrinos and cosmic composition
• Long Range Interactions in Cosmology: Implications for Neutrinos
• Thermal axion production at low temperatures: a smooth treatment of the QCD phase transition
• Testing spatial curvature and anisotropic expansion on top of the $\Lambda$CDM model
• SPT-3G D1: CMB temperature and polarization power spectra and cosmology from 2019 and 2020 observations of the SPT-3G Main field
• Thermal QCD Axions across Thresholds
• Euclid: Cosmological forecasts from the void size function
• Health checkup test of the standard cosmological model in view of recent Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies experiments
• New cosmological bounds on hot relics: Axions $\&$ Neutrinos
• Novel cosmological bounds on thermally-produced axion-like particles
• The resilience of the Etherington-Hubble relation
• Gravitational Wave from Graviton Bremsstrahlung during Reheating
• Towards a precision calculation of $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ in the Standard Model III: Improved estimate of NLO contributions to the collision integral
• Indications for a Nonzero Lepton Asymmetry from Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies
• Cosmological constraints on decaying axion-like particles: a global analysis
• Primordial lepton asymmetries in the precision cosmology era: Current status and future sensitivities from BBN and the CMB
• Inflation, the Hubble Tension and Early Dark Energy: an alternative overview
• Neutrino non-standard interactions meet precision measurements of $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$
• Cosmological inference from the EFTofLSS: the eBOSS QSO full-shape analysis
• Cosmic Neutrino Background Detection in Large-Neutrino-Mass Cosmologies
• Cosmological Implications of Axion-Matter Couplings
• Quantifying the global "CMB tension" between the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Planck satellite in extended models of cosmology
• Primordial neutrino asymmetry evolution with full mean-field effects and collisions
• Cosmology with varying fundamental constants from hyperlight, coupled scalars
• Limits on the cosmic neutrino background
• Minimal dark energy: key to sterile neutrino and Hubble constant tensions?
• What can CMB observations tell us about the neutrino distribution function?
• The Interplay between the Dark Matter Axion and Primordial Black Holes
• Towards a reliable calculation of relic radiation from primordial gravitational waves
• CosmicNet II: Emulating extended cosmologies with efficient and accurate neural networks
• Confronting interacting dark radiation scenarios with cosmological data
• Axion-like particles from primordial black holes shining through the Universe
• Euclid preparation. Sensitivity to neutrino parameters
• Hubble tension in lepton asymmetric cosmology with an extra radiation
• Impacts of dark energy on weighing neutrinos after DESI BAO
• Model marginalized constraints on neutrino properties from cosmology
• Measuring Inflaton Couplings via Primordial Gravitational Waves
• Scalar and Fermion Two-component SIMP Dark Matter with an Accidental ${\mathbb{Z}}_4^{}$ Symmetry
• Is Dark Energy Dynamical in the DESI Era? A Critical Review
• CMB Anomalies and the Hubble Tension
• Neutrino Magnetic Moments Meet Precision $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ Measurements
• ${\Lambda }_{\mathrm{s}}$CDM cosmology: Alleviating major cosmological tensions by predicting standard neutrino properties
• Scaling Transformations and the Origins of Light Relics Constraints from Cosmic Microwave Background Observations
• Constraints on primordial lepton asymmetries with full neutrino transport
• Gravitational wave production from preheating with trilinear interactions
• A search for sterile neutrinos in interacting dark energy models using DESI baryon acoustic oscillations and DES supernovae data
• When FIMPs Decay into Neutrinos: The $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ Story
• Towards a full description of MeV dark matter decoupling: a self-consistent determination of relic abundance and $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$
• Two sides of the same coin: sterile neutrinos and dark radiation. Status and perspectives
• Cosmological Constraints on Dark Scalar
• Measuring Hubble constant in an anisotropic extension of $\Lambda$CDM model
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis constraints on varying electron mass solution to the Hubble tension
• Thermal axions with multi-eV masses are possible in low-reheating scenarios
• Diraxiogenesis
• Cosmological radiation density with non-standard neutrino-electron interactions
• Current constraints on cosmological scenarios with very low reheating temperatures
• LiteBIRD and CMB-S4 Sensitivities to Reheating in Plateau Models of Inflation
• Neutrino masses from large-scale structures: future sensitivity and theory dependence
• Simple estimate of BBN sensitivity to light freeze-in dark matter
• Extended Analysis of Neutrino-Dark Matter Interactions with Small-Scale CMB Experiments
• Constraints on new physics around the MeV scale with cosmological observations
• A review of neutrino decoupling from the early universe to the current universe
• Constraints from High-Precision Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background: The Case of Disintegrating Dark Matter with $\Lambda$ or Dynamical Dark Energy
• Impact of the damping tail on neutrino mass constraints
• Cosmology of an Axion-Like Majoron
• Neutrino flavor mixing breaks isotropy in the early universe
• Chasing cosmic inflation: constraints for inflationary models and reheating insights
• Big bang nucleosynthesis and early dark energy in light of the EMPRESS $Y_p$ results and the $H_0$ tension
• Dark Radiation from the Primordial Thermal Bath in Momentum Space
• Non-unitary three-neutrino mixing in the early Universe
• Quantum tunneling in the early universe: Stable magnetic monopoles from metastable cosmic strings
• Constraining Holographic Dark Energy and Analyzing Cosmological Tensions
• Variation of the fine structure constant in the light of recent helium abundance measurement
• Free-Streaming Neutrinos and Their Phase Shift in Current and Future CMB Power Spectra
• Effective neutrino number shift from keV-vacuum neutrinophilic 2HDM
• S.M.A.S.H.E.D.: Standard Model Axion Seesaw Higgs Inflation Extended for Dirac Neutrinos
• Sub-GeV dark matter and nano-Hertz gravitational waves from a classically conformal dark sector
• Lepton Flavor Asymmetries: from the early Universe to BBN
• Freeze-In of radiative keV-scale neutrino dark matter from a new $\text{U}(1{)}_{\text{B-L}}$
• Exploring neutrino interactions in light of present and upcoming galaxy surveys
• Theoretical and Experimental Challenges in the Measurement of Neutrino Mass
• How new physics affects primordial neutrinos decoupling: Direct Simulation Monte Carlo approach
• Neutrino at different epochs of the Friedmann Universe
• Implications on Cosmology from Dirac Neutrino Magnetic Moments
• Dirac dark matter, dark radiation, and the type-II seesaw mechanism in alternative $U(1{)}_X$ standard model
• New Interpretations of the Cosmological Preference for a Negative Neutrino Mass
• New insights into axion freeze-in
• Probing Dark Relativistic Species and Their Interactions with Dark Matter through CMB and 21cm surveys
• Dynamics of metastable Standard Model particles from long-lived particle decays in the MeV primordial plasma
• Light Sterile Neutrinos
• C-parity, magnetic monopoles and higher frequency gravitational waves
• QED corrections to the thermal neutrino interaction rate
• Effects of anisotropy in an anisotropic extension of $w$CDM model
• Directly Probing Neutrino Interactions through CMB Phase Shift Measurements
• (Multi-field) Natural Inflation and Gravitational Waves
• Strong cosmological constraints on the neutrino magnetic moment
• Linking the $R_{K^{(\ast )}}$ anomalies to the Hubble tension via a single right-handed neutrino
• One Extension to Explain Them All, One Scale-Invariant Spectrum to Test Them All, and in One Model Bind Them
• Fast and Flexible Neutrino Decoupling Part I: The Standard Model
• Possible Impact of non-Gaussianities on cosmological constraints in neutrino physics
• Imprints of MeV Scale Hidden Dark Sector at Planck Data
• Loop effect with vector mediator in the coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering
• Impostor Among $\nu$s: Dark Radiation Masquerading as Self-Interacting Neutrinos
• Comparing measures of the Hubble and BAO tensions in $\Lambda$CDM and possible solutions in $f(Q)$ gravity
• Relaxing cosmological constraints on current neutrino masses
• Knot reconstruction of the scalar primordial power spectrum with Planck, ACT, and SPT CMB data
• Cosmic Neutrino Decoupling and its Observable Imprints: Insights from Entropic-Dual Transport
• Dark Matter-Radiation Scattering Enhances CMB Phase Shift through Dark Matter-loading
• Gravitational waves from first-order phase transitions in Majoron models of neutrino mass
• Primordial neutrinos fade to gray: constraints from cosmological observables
• Return of the Lepton Number: Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter Production and the Revival of the Shi-Fuller Mechanism
• Scale and redshift dependent limits on cosmic neutrino properties
• Multimodality in the Search for New Physics in Pulsar Timing Data and the Case of Kination-amplified Gravitational-wave Background from Inflation
• Using $\Delta N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ to constrain preferred axion model dark matter
• A flexible parameterization to test early physics solutions to the Hubble tension with future CMB data
• Cool dark sector, concordance, and a low ${\sigma }_8$
• Thermal Production of Massless Dark Photons
• Testing the coupling of dark radiations in light of the Hubble tension
• Sterile neutrino rates for general $M$, $T$, $\mu$, $k$: review of a theoretical framework
• Interacting light thermal-relic dark matter: self-consistent cosmological bounds
• A Semiblind Reconstruction of the History of Effective Number of Neutrinos Using CMB Data
• Improving CMB constraints on early Universe physics with LSS: A multi-probe forecast including cross-covariance
• Precision calculation of $N_{\text{eff}}$ with Neutrino Direct Simulation Monte Carlo
• The choice of Planck CMB likelihood in cosmological analyses
• Potential Surge Preheating: enhanced resonance from potential features
• Combined $13\times 2$-point analysis of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large-Scale Structure: implications for the $S_8$-tension and neutrino mass constraints
• Magnetic monopoles and high frequency gravitational waves from quasi-stable strings
• Cosmological Constraints on Neutrino Masses in a Second-Order CPL Dark Energy Model
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis as a probe of non-standard neutrino interactions and non-unitary three-neutrino mixing
• Forecasting Constraints on Non-Thermal Light Massive Relics from Future CMB Experiments (CMB-S4/Simons Observatory)
• Cosmological Constraints on f(T,B) Gravity from Observations of Early and Late Universe
• Nambu-Goldstone boson phenomenology in Domain-Wall Standard Model
• Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis on a bubble universe nucleated in Kerr-AdS${}_5$ Black Hole
• Phenomenology of Dirac neutrino EFTs up to dimension six
• Towards a precision calculation of $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ in the Standard Model IV: Estimating the impact of positronium formation
• Neutrino Emission and Plasma Heating from Primordial Black Holes: An Improved Approach to $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ Constraints
• The Universe at the MeV era: neutrino evolution and cosmological observables
• 21 cm Cosmology Sensitivity to Small-Scale Structure: Warm vs Neutrino-Interacting Dark Matter
• Fifty shades of grayness: parametrizations of spectral distortions and applications in cosmology
• Bounds on the Tsallis Parameter from a deformed Neutrino Sector in the Early Universe
• Status and Perspectives of Neutrino Physics
• Constraints on the gravitational potential from DESI DR2 BAO and its implications for the local void scenario
• Cosmological radiation density with non-standard neutrino-electron interactions
• Beyond thermal approximations: Precise cosmological bounds on Axion-Like Particles
• Light Sterile Neutrinos in the Early Universe: Effects of Altered Dispersion Relations and a coupling to Axion-Like Dark Matter
• ABCMB: A Python+JAX Package for the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum
• Is the $\Lambda$CDM Model in Crisis?
• Constraining Tsallis Corrections to Photon Reheating from Electron-Positron Annihilation: A Phenomenological Approach
• Primordial observables of explicit diffeomorphism violation in gravity
• Slow neutrinos: non-linearity and momentum-space emulation
• Revisiting the sphaleron and axion production rates in QCD at high temperatures