Stringent constraints on cosmological neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries from synchronized flavor transformation

2002/03/31 by Kevork N. Abazajian, J. F. Beacom, John F. Beacom +1 · 11 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Big Bang nucleosynthesis #Degeneracy (biology) #Degenerate energy levels #Electron neutrino #Mixing (physics) #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino oscillation #Nuclear physics #Nucleosynthesis #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Pontecorvo–Maki–Nakagawa–Sakata matrix #Quantum mechanics #Solar neutrino #Solar neutrino problem #Stars #astro-ph #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.66.013008

published as Phys.Rev. D66 (2002) 013008 · 11 pages, 6 figures; minor changes to match PRD version

arxiv created 2002/07/17 · openalex publication_date 2002/07/29 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We assess a mechanism which can transform neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries between flavors in the early universe, and confirm that such transformation is unavoidable in the near bimaximal framework emerging for the neutrino mixing matrix. We show that the process is a standard Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein flavor transformation dictated by a synchronization of momentum states. We also show that flavor ``equilibration'' is a special feature of maximal mixing, and carefully examine new constraints placed on neutrino asymmetries. In particular, the big bang nucleosynthesis limit on electron neutrino degeneracy |\ensuremathξ_e|\ensuremath\lesssim0.04 does not apply directly to all flavors, yet confirmation of the large-mixing-angle solution to the solar neutrino problem will eliminate the possibility of degenerate big bang nucleosynthesis.

Citations

• Measuring the Cosmological Lepton Asymmetry through the Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy
• Large neutrino asymmetries from neutrino oscillations
• New CMBR data and the cosmic neutrino background
• Multiple Peaks in the Angular Power Spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background: Significance and Consequences for Cosmology
• A new mechanism for baryogenesis
• Measurement of the Rate ofνe+d→p+p+e−Interactions Produced byB<mml:mprescripts/>8Solar Neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory
• Evidence for neutrino oscillations from the observation ofν¯eappearance in aν¯μbeam

Cited by

• Fast flavor oscillations in dense neutrino media with collisions
• Entanglement and collective flavor oscillations in a dense neutrino gas
• Neutrino masses in astroparticle physics
• Measuring the cosmological background of relativistic particles with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
• Neutrinos in cosmology
• Impact of CP-violation on neutrino lepton number asymmetries revisited
• WMAP, neutrino degeneracy, and non-Gaussianity constraints on isocurvature perturbations in the curvaton model of inflation
• Forecast on lepton asymmetry from future CMB experiments
• Collective Neutrino Oscillations
• Lepton asymmetry, neutrino spectral distortions, and big bang nucleosynthesis
• Neutrino masses from cosmological probes