Reconciling sterile neutrinos with Big Bang nucleosynthesis

GRB 221009A Gamma Rays from the Radiative Decay of Heavy Neutrinos?

We consider a mechanism that causes a decrease in the attenuation of high energy gamma-ray flux from gamma ray burst GRB 221009A. The mechanism is based on the existence of a heavy m_{N}∼(0.1-1)  MeV mostly sterile neutrino N which mixes with active neutrinos. N's are produced in the gamma-ray burst (GRB) in π and K decays via mixing with ν_{μ}. They undergo the radiative decay N→νγ on the way to Earth. The usual exponential attenuation of gamma rays is lifted to an attenuation inverse in the optical depth. Various restrictions on this scenario are discussed. We find that the high energy γ events at 18 TeV can be explained if (i) the GRB active neutrino fluence is close to the observed limit, (ii) the branching ratio of N→νγ is at least of the order 10%.

First Constraints on the Complete Neutrino Mixing Matrix with a Sterile Neutrino

Neutrino oscillation models involving one extra mass eigenstate beyond the standard three (3+1) are fit to global short baseline experimental data and the recent IceCube ν_{μ}+ν[over ¯]_{μ} disappearance search result. We find a best fit of Δm_{41}^{2}=1.75  eV^{2} with Δχ_{null-min}^{2}/d.o.f. of 50.61/4. We find that the combined IceCube and short baseline data constrain θ_{34} to <80°(<6°) at 90% C.L. for Δm_{41}^{2}≈2(6)  eV^{2}, which is improved over present limits. Incorporating the IceCube information provides the first constraints on all entries of the 3+1 mixing matrix.

Alternative Solutions to Big Bang Nucleosynthesis

Standard big bang nucleosynthesis (SBBN) has been remarkably successful, and it may well be the correct and sufficient account of what happened. However, interest in variations from the standard picture come from two sources: First, big bang nucleosynthesis can be used to constrain physics of the early universe. Second, there may be some discrepancy between predictions of SBBN and observations of abundances. Various alternatives to SBBN include inhomogeneous nucleosynthesis, nucleosynthesis with antimatter, and nonstandard neutrino physics.

Cosmologically safe eV-scale sterile neutrinos and improved dark matter structure

We show that sterile neutrinos with masses ≳1  eV, as motivated by several short baseline oscillation anomalies, can be consistent with cosmological constraints if they are charged under a hidden sector force mediated by a light boson. In this case, sterile neutrinos experience a large thermal potential that suppresses mixing between active and sterile neutrinos in the early Universe, even if vacuum mixing angles are large. Thus, the abundance of sterile neutrinos in the Universe remains very small, and their impact on big bang nucleosynthesis, cosmic microwave background, and large-scale structure formation is negligible. It is conceivable that the new gauge force also couples to dark matter, possibly ameliorating some of the small-scale structure problems associated with cold dark matter.

Cosmology favoring extra radiation and sub-eV mass sterile neutrinos as an option

Precision cosmology and big-bang nucleosynthesis mildly favor extra radiation in the Universe beyond photons and ordinary neutrinos, lending support to the existence of low-mass sterile neutrinos. We use the WMAP 7-year data, small-scale cosmic microwave background observations from ACBAR, BICEP, and QuAD, the SDSS 7th data release, and measurement of the Hubble parameter from HST observations to derive credible regions for the assumed common mass scale m{s} and effective number N{s} of thermally excited sterile neutrino states. Our results are compatible with the existence of one or perhaps two sterile neutrinos, as suggested by LSND and MiniBooNE, if m{s} is in the sub-eV range.

Coherent active-sterile neutrino flavor transformation in the early universe

We solve the problem of coherent Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein resonant active-to-sterile neutrino flavor conversion driven by an initial lepton number in the early Universe. We find incomplete destruction of the lepton number in this process and a sterile neutrino energy distribution with a distinctive cusp and high energy tail. These features imply alteration of the nonzero lepton number primordial nucleosynthesis paradigm when there exist sterile neutrinos with rest masses m(s) approximately 1 eV. This could result in better light element probes of (constraints on) these particles.

New constraints on neutrino physics from BOOMERANG data

We have performed a likelihood analysis of the recent data on the cosmic microwave background radiation anisotropy from the BOOMERANG experiment. These data place a strong upper bound on the radiation density present at recombination. Expressed in terms of the equivalent number of neutrino species the 2sigma bound is N(nu)</=13. This bound is not flavor sensitive. It also applies to the Universe at a much later epoch, and as such places severe limits on scenarios with decaying neutrinos. The bound also yields a firm upper limit on the lepton asymmetry in the Universe.