How robust are inflation model and dark matter constraints from cosmological data?

2006/11/30 by Jan Hamann, Steen Hannestad, Martin S. Sloth +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Cosmic microwave background #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark energy #Dark matter #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Inflation (cosmology) #Lambda #Mathematical physics #Neutrino #Particle physics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Theoretical physics #astro-ph #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.75.023522

published as Phys.Rev.D75:023522,2007 · 9 pages, 9 figures, references updated

arxiv created 2006/11/30 · openalex publication_date 2007/01/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

High-precision data from observation of the cosmic microwave background and the large scale structure of the universe provide very tight constraints on the effective parameters that describe cosmological inflation. Indeed, within a constrained class of \ensuremathΛCDM models, the simple \ensuremathλ\ensuremathφ⁴ chaotic inflation model already appears to be ruled out by cosmological data. In this paper, we compute constraints on inflationary parameters within a more general framework that includes other physically motivated parameters such as a nonzero neutrino mass. We find that a strong degeneracy between the tensor-to-scalar ratio r and the neutrino mass prevents \ensuremathλ\ensuremathφ⁴ from being excluded by present data. Reversing the argument, if \ensuremathλ\ensuremathφ⁴ is the correct model of inflation, it predicts a sum of neutrino masses at 0.3\ensuremath→0.5 eV, a range compatible with present experimental limits and within the reach of the next generation of neutrino mass measurements. We also discuss the associated constraints on the dark matter density, the dark energy equation of state, and spatial curvature, and show that the allowed regions are significantly altered. Importantly, we find an allowed range of 0.094<\ensuremathΩ_ch²<0.136 for the dark matter density, a factor of 2 larger than that reported in previous studies. This expanded parameter space may have implications for constraints on SUSY dark matter models.

Citations

• EVIDENCE FOR NEUTRINOLESS DOUBLE BETA DECAY
• Suppressing the lower multipoles in the CMB anisotropies
• Neutrino Masses and the Dark Energy Equation of State:Relaxing the Cosmological Neutrino Mass Bound
• Search for neutrinoless double beta decay with enriched 76Ge in Gran Sasso 1990–2003
• Cosmology in the Next Millennium: Combining Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data to Constrain Inflationary Models
• Requirements on collider data to match the precision of WMAP on supersymmetric dark matter
• The neutrino mass bound from WMAP 3 year data, the baryon acoustic peak, the SNLS supernovae and the Lyman-α forest
• The Supernova Legacy Survey: measurement of Ω_M, Ω_Λ andwfrom the first year data set
• A Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis of the CMSSM
• Cosmological constraints from the SDSS luminous red galaxies
• How long before the end of inflation were observable perturbations produced?
• Chaotic inflation

Cited by

• The gravitino–stau scenario after catalyzed big bang nucleosynthesis
• Benchmark scenarios for the NMSSM