Forecasting neutrino masses from galaxy clustering in the Dark Energy Survey combined with thePlanckmeasurements

Abstract

We study the prospects for detecting neutrino masses from the galaxy angular power spectrum in photometric redshift shells of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) over a volume of ∼20 h−3 Gpc3, combined with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) angular fluctuations expected to be measured from the Planck satellite. We find that for a Λ cold dark matter concordance model with seven free parameters in addition to a fiducial neutrino mass of Mν= 0.24 eV, we recover from DES and Planck the correct value with uncertainty of ±0.12 eV (95 per cent confidence level; CL), assuming perfect knowledge of the galaxy biasing. If the fiducial total mass is close to zero, then the upper limit is 0.11 eV (95 per cent CL). This upper limit from DES and Planck is over three times tighter than using Planck alone, as DES breaks the parameter degeneracies in a CMB‐only analysis. The analysis utlilizes spherical harmonics up to 300, averaged in bin of 10 to mimic the DES sky coverage. The results are similar if we supplement DES bands (grizY) with the Visible and Infra‐Red Survey Telescope for Astronomy Hemisphere Survey (VHS) near‐infrared band (JHK). The result is robust to uncertainties in non‐linear fluctuations and redshift distortions. However, the result is sensitive to the assumed galaxy biasing schemes and it requires accurate prior knowledge of the biasing. To summarize, if the total neutrino mass in nature is greater than 0.1 eV, we should be able to detect it with DES and Planck, a result with great importance to fundamental physics.

Combining Planck data with large scale structure information gives a strong neutrino mass constraint

“…limit changes (due to the area between 0 and 0.04 eV). The improvement from adding WiggleZ to BAO þ Planck and the sensitivity to the power spectrum shape bodes very well for potential constraints from future largescale structure surveys [48,[57][58][59]. Given the lower limit from particle physics, the allowable range for the sum of neutrino masses is 0.05 eV < P m ν < 0.25 eV.…”

“…Neutrino mass constraints are important goals of current and future galaxy surveys [48] such as the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey [57], Dark Energy Survey [58], and Euclid [59]. Even stronger constraints on both P m ν and N eff would be achievable if we were able to use the whole observed matter power spectrum in the nonlinear regime.…”

Cosmology in Mirror Twin Higgs and neutrino masses

“…Even if the neutrino sector fully respects the Z 2 symmetry, decays to SM states are preferred because of the hierarchy of electroweak vevs f > v, with the result that the visible sector is left at a higher temperature than the mirror sector. 1 In this model the mirror neutrinos are significantly heavier than their SM counterparts, resulting in a sizable contribution to the overall cosmological mass density in neutrinos that can be detected by future probes of large scale structure such as DES [45], LSST [46] and DESI [47]. This framework for neutrino masses therefore offers a natural resolution to the cosmological problems of the original proposal, while leading to interesting predictions for upcoming experiments.…”

Upper Bound of 0.28 eV on Neutrino Masses from the Largest Photometric Redshift Survey

“…Finally, our overall method shows great promise for the next generation of surveys, which will yield upper limits of e.g. 0.12 eV [42] and 0.025 eV [15] at 95% C.L.…”