Large neutrino asymmetries from neutrino oscillations

1995/09/19 by R. Foot, M. J. Thomson, Raymond R. Volkas +1 · 154 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Measurements of neutrino speed #Neutrino #Neutrino Physics Research #Neutrino oscillation #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Solar neutrino #astro-ph #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.53.r5349

published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 53(10), R5349-R5353 (American Physical Society) · 12 pages, LaTeX, one figure

arxiv created 1995/09/19 · openalex publication_date 1996/05/15 · arxiv updated 2011/02/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We reexamine neutrino oscillations in the early universe. Contrary to previous studies, we show that large neutrino asymmetries can arise due to oscillations between ordinary neutrinos and sterile neutrinos. This means that the big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) bounds on the mass and mixing of ordinary neutrinos with sterile neutrinos can be evaded. Also, it is possible that the neutrino asymmetries can be large enough (\ensuremath\gtrsim10%) to have a significant effect on BBN through nuclear reaction rates.

Citations

• Observation of a small atmospheric vμ/ve ratio in Kamiokande
• Atmospheric ratio in the multi-GeV energy range

Cited by

• Neutrino flavor transformation in the lepton-asymmetric universe
• Four-neutrino mixing and Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Pseudo-Dirac neutrinos as a potential complete solution to the neutrino oscillation puzzle
• New Dark Matter Candidate: Nonthermal Sterile Neutrinos
• Big bang nucleosynthesis and active-sterile neutrino mixing: Evidence for maximalνμ↔ντmixing in Super Kamiokande?
• Probing oscillations into sterile neutrinos with cosmology, astrophysics and experiments
• Large lepton asymmetry for small baryon asymmetry and warm dark matter
• Stringent constraints on cosmological neutrino-antineutrino asymmetries from synchronized flavor transformation
• Increase in the primordial4Heyield in the two-doublet four-neutrino mixing scheme
• Effects of degenerate sterile neutrinos on the supernova neutrino flux
• Lepton-number-driven sterile neutrino production in the early universe
• Maximal νμ–ντ oscillations, the see-saw mechanism and the Exact Parity Model