New interpretations of the cosmological preference for a negative neutrino mass
Phys. Rev. D 113, 043514 – Published 17 February, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1bqb-qlrj
Abstract
Recent observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) show some tension with a cosmology. For one, the cosmological parameters determined by the CMB are at odds with the expansion history determined by latest BAO measurements. In addition, the combined data has placed uncomfortably strong constraints on neutrino mass. Both effects can be interpreted as negative neutrino mass, one describing the change to the expansion history and the other one describing enhanced lensing. In this paper, we show the current tensions can be solved with a single change either to the lensing of the CMB or the expansion of the universe. We show additional lensing could arise from a variety of models with new light fields. However, these models rarely give the same signal in temperature and polarization, giving a concrete test of the scenario. Alternatively, dark sector models can explain the changes to the expansion by changing the evolution of the matter density. These models introduce new forces, giving rise to long-range signals in the three-point statistics of galaxies. We discuss a range of other examples which all illustrate the pattern that additional signals should appear if these tensions are explained by beyond the Standard Model physics.
