Measuring the cosmological lepton asymmetry through the CMB anisotropy

Abstract

A large lepton asymmetry in the Universe is still a viable possibility and leads to many interesting phenomena such as gauge symmetry nonrestoration at high temperature. We show that a large lepton asymmetry changes the predicted cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy and that any degeneracy in the relic neutrino sea will be measured to a precision of 1% or better when the CMB anisotropy is measured at the accuracy expected to result from the planned satellite missions MAP and Planck. In fact, the current measurements already put an upper limit on the lepton asymmetry of the Universe which is stronger than the one coming from considerations of primordial nucleosynthesis and structure formation.

4 pagex LaTex, 1 color postscript figure, uses epsf. Version submitted to PRL. (Bug in code fixed, new figure, conclusions unchanged)

Cited by in corpus (38)

• Cosmological bounds on neutrino degeneracy improved by flavor oscillations
• Stringent Constraints on Cosmological Neutrino-Antineutrino Asymmetries from Synchronized Flavor Transformation
• Lepton asymmetry and primordial nucleosynthesis in the era of precision cosmology
• The Impact of an Extra Background of Relativistic Particles on the Cosmological Parameters derived from Microwave Background Anisotropies
• High-energy neutrino conversion and the lepton asymmetry in the universe
• Using BBN in cosmological parameter extraction from CMB: a forecast for Planck
• Non equilibrium spectra of degenerate relic neutrinos
• The Small Observed Baryon Asymmetry from a Large Lepton Asymmetry
• Naturally Large Cosmological Neutrino Asymmetries in the MSSM
• Expected Signals in Relic Neutrino Detectors
• Measuring the cosmological background of relativistic particles with WMAP
• Unstable superheavy relic particles as a source of neutrinos responsible for the ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays
• New Constraints on inflation from the Cosmic Microwave Background
• New constraints on neutrino physics from Boomerang data
• Testing Standard and Degenerate Big Bang Nucleosynthesis with BOOMERanG and MAXIMA-1
• Indications for a Nonzero Lepton Asymmetry from Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies
• Remarks on the Boomerang results, the baryon density and the leptonic asymmetry
• Updating non-standard neutrinos properties with Planck-CMB data and full-shape analysis of BOSS and eBOSS galaxies
• Probing the properties of relic neutrinos using the cosmic microwave background, the Hubble Space Telescope and galaxy clusters
• Boomerang returns unexpectedly
• Constraints on Neutrino Degeneracy from the Cosmic Microwave Background and Primordial Nucleosynthesis
• WMAP 5-year constraints on lepton asymmetry and radiation energy density: Implications for Planck
• CP violation effects on the neutrino degeneracy parameters in the Early Universe
• Active-Sterile neutrino oscillations and BBN+CMBR constraints
• Cosmological evidence for leptonic asymmetry after Planck
• Decaying neutrino and a high cosmological baryon density
• The free and safe fate of symmetry non-restoration
• Oscillation Induced Neutrino Asymmetry Growth in the Early Universe
• Cosmological measurement of neutrino mass in the presence of leptonic asymmetry
• High Energy Sphalerons for Baryogenesis at Low Temperatures
• Active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the early Universe: asymmetry generation at low |delta m^2| and the Landau-Zener approximation
• Large Lepton Number and High Temperature Symmetry Breaking in MSSM
• Transient domain walls and lepton asymmetry in the Left-Right symmetric model
• Probing a panoply of curvaton-decay scenarios using CMB data
• Forecast on lepton asymmetry from future CMB experiments
• Inhomogeneous Neutrino Degeneracy and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Linear wave spectrum associated with collective neutrino-plasma interactions in the early universe
• Lepton Asymmetry of the Universe and Charged Quark-Gluon Plasma