A novel model-marginalized cosmological bound on the QCD axion mass

Abstract

We present model-marginalized limits on mixed hot dark matter scenarios, which consider both thermal neutrinos and thermal QCD axions. A novel aspect of our analyses is the inclusion of small-scale Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the South Pole Telescope (SPT), together with those from the Planck satellite and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) data. After marginalizing over a number of well-motivated non-minimal background cosmologies, the tightest $95\%$ CL upper bound we obtain is $0.21$ eV, both for $\sum m_{\nu }$ and $m_{\mathrm{a}}$, from the combination of ACT, Planck and BAO measurements. Restricting the analyses to the standard $\Lambda$CDM picture, we find $\sum m_{\nu }<0.16$ eV and $m_{\mathrm{a}}<0.18$ eV, both at $95\%$ CL. Interestingly, the best background cosmology is never found within the minimal $\Lambda$CDM plus hot relics, regardless of the data sets exploited in the analyses. The combination of Planck with either BAO, SPT or ACT prefers a universe with a non-zero value of the running in the primordial power spectrum with strong evidence. Small-scale CMB probes, both alone and combined with BAO, either prefer, with substantial evidence, non-flat universes (as in the case of SPT) or a model with a time varying dark energy component (as in the case of ACT).

arXiv comment17 pages, 5 figures, 9 tables. V2:updated to match the PRD published version

References in corpus (69)

• Efficient Computation of CMB anisotropies in closed FRW models
• Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: a Monte-Carlo approach
• The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: cosmological analysis of the DR12 galaxy sample
• The 6dF Galaxy Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the Local Hubble Constant
• Exploring the Expansion History of the Universe
• Accelerating Universes with Scaling Dark Matter
• In the Realm of the Hubble tension $-$ a Review of Solutions
• The Clustering of the SDSS DR7 Main Galaxy Sample I: A 4 per cent Distance Measure at z=0.15
• Planck 2018 results. I. Overview and the cosmological legacy of Planck
• An Improved Experimental Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• Bayes in the sky: Bayesian inference and model selection in cosmology
• Planck 2018 results. V. CMB power spectra and likelihoods
• Challenges for $\Lambda$CDM: An update
• Planck 2018 results. VIII. Gravitational lensing
• Cobaya: Code for Bayesian Analysis of hierarchical physical models
• The landscape of QCD axion models
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR4 Maps and Cosmological Parameters
• Measurement of the permanent electric dipole moment of the neutron
• Planck evidence for a closed Universe and a possible crisis for cosmology
• One percent determination of the primordial deuterium abundance
• CMB power spectrum parameter degeneracies in the era of precision cosmology
• PolyChord: nested sampling for cosmology
• PolyChord: next-generation nested sampling
• A Revised Experimental Upper Limit on the Electric Dipole Moment of the Neutron
• The effects of He I 10830 on helium abundance determinations
• Curvature tension: evidence for a closed universe
• Reconciling Planck with the local value of $H_0$ in extended parameter space
• SPT-3G: A Next-Generation Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Experiment on the South Pole Telescope
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectra at 98 and 150 GHz
• Measurements of the E-Mode Polarization and Temperature-E-Mode Correlation of the CMB from SPT-3G 2018 Data
• Cosmic Microwave Weak lensing data as a test for the dark universe
• CMB power spectra and cosmological parameters from Planck PR4 with CamSpec
• Redefining the Axion Window
• No evidence for extensions to the standard cosmological model
• Investigating Cosmic Discordance
• New cosmological mass limit on thermal relic axions
• Cosmological constraints in extended parameter space from the Planck 2018 Legacy release
• Neutrino masses and their ordering: Global Data, Priors and Models
• Relic Neutrinos, thermal axions and cosmology in early 2014
• Neutrino and axion hot dark matter bounds after WMAP-7
• Cosmological Axion and neutrino mass constraints from Planck 2015 temperature and polarization data
• Axion hot dark matter bounds after Planck
• An improved cosmological bound on the thermal axion mass
• Cosmological Bound on the QCD Axion Mass, Redux
• Full-Shape Galaxy Power Spectra and the Curvature Tension
• Strong Bayesian Evidence for the Normal Neutrino Hierarchy
• Thermal axion production at low temperatures: a smooth treatment of the QCD phase transition
• Thermal QCD Axions across Thresholds
• Health checkup test of the standard cosmological model in view of recent Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies experiments
• Cosmological constraints on neutrino plus axion hot dark matter
• Cosmological constraints on neutrino plus axion hot dark matter: Update after WMAP-5
• New cosmological bounds on hot relics: Axions $\&$ Neutrinos
• Cosmological constraints on slow-roll inflation: an update
• Novel cosmological bounds on thermally-produced axion-like particles
• Breakdown of chiral perturbation theory for the axion hot dark matter bound
• Is the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum coming back? ACT preference for $n_s\sim 1$ and its discordance with Planck
• Objective Bayesian analysis of neutrino masses and hierarchy
• The DFSZ axion in the CMB
• Bayesian evidence for the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ and neutrino masses $m_{\nu }$: Effects of uniform vs logarithmic priors
• Strengthening the bound on the mass of the lightest neutrino with terrestrial and cosmological experiments
• Future cosmological sensitivity for hot dark matter axions
• Quantifying the global "CMB tension" between the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the Planck satellite in extended models of cosmology
• Beyond $\Lambda$CDM constraints from the full shape clustering measurements from BOSS and eBOSS
• Model marginalized constraints on neutrino properties from cosmology
• What is flat ΛCDM, and may we choose it?
• Cosmology-marginalized approaches in Bayesian model comparison: the neutrino mass as a case study
• Cosmological forecasts on thermal axions, relic neutrinos and light elements
• Constraining power of open likelihoods, made prior-independent
• Robustness of cosmological axion mass limits

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Robust Preference for Dynamical Dark Energy in DESI BAO and SN Measurements
• Astrophysical Axion Bounds: The 2024 Edition
• Planck-PR4 anisotropy spectra show (better) consistency with General Relativity
• The QCD Axion: Some Like It Hot
• Impact of the damping tail on neutrino mass constraints
• Dark Radiation from the Primordial Thermal Bath in Momentum Space
• Revisiting signatures of thermal axions in nonstandard cosmologies
• How robust are the parameter constraints extending the $\Lambda$CDM model?
• Catalogues of Cosmologically Self-Consistent Hadronic QCD Axion Models