Neutrinos in Astrophysics and Cosmology: Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI) 2020 Lectures

Abstract

I introduce the consequences of neutrino mass and mixing in the dense environments of the early Universe and in astrophysical environments. Thermal and matter effects are reviewed in the context of a two-neutrino formalism, with methods of extension to multiple neutrinos. The observed large neutrino mixing angles place the strongest constraint on cosmological lepton (or neutrino) asymmetries, while new sterile neutrinos provide a wealth of possible new physics, including lepton asymmetry generation as well as candidates for dark matter. I also review cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure constraints on neutrino mass and energy density. Lastly, I review how X-ray astronomy has become a branch of neutrino physics in searches for keV-scale sterile neutrino dark matter radiative decay.

Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI) 2020 Lectures Chapter; 45 pages, 17 figures; v2: fixed reference arXiv numbers and updated discussion on degenerate BBN and X-ray searches

References in corpus (19)

• Too big to fail? The puzzling darkness of massive Milky Way subhaloes
• Can sterile neutrinos be the dark matter?
• Dark-matter sterile neutrinos in models with a gauge singlet in the Higgs sector
• Opening a new window for warm dark matter
• Constraints on the Dark Matter Particle Mass from the Number of Milky Way Satellites
• Discovery of a 3.5 keV line in the Galactic Center and a Critical Look at the Origin of the Line Across Astronomical Targets
• Resonantly-Produced 7 keV Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter Models and the Properties of Milky Way Satellites
• Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
• Constraining DM properties with SPI
• Neutrinos help reconcile Planck measurements with both Early and Local Universe
• Restrictions on parameters of sterile neutrino dark matter from observations of galaxy clusters
• Limits on the Radiative Decay of Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter from the Unresolved Cosmic and Soft X-ray Backgrounds
• A Dark Matter Progenitor: Light Vector Boson Decay into (Sterile) Neutrinos
• Clustering properties of a sterile neutrino dark matter candidate
• Small-scale structure formation properties of chilled sterile neutrinos as dark matter
• Additional Light Sterile Neutrinos and Cosmology
• Decaying dark matter search with NuSTAR deep sky observations
• Sterile neutrinos
• Technical Comment on "The dark matter interpretation of the 3.5-keV line is inconsistent with blank-sky observations"

Cited by in corpus (2)

• DEMNUni: comparing nonlinear power spectra prescriptions in the presence of massive neutrinos and dynamical dark energy
• Rapid onset of the 21-cm signal suggests a preferred mass range for dark matter particle