Scale and redshift dependent limits on cosmic neutrino properties
Phys. Rev. D 112, 063555 – Published 26 September, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6m5f-xn8r
Abstract
Cosmological neutrino mass and abundance measurements are reaching unprecedented precision. Testing their stability versus redshift and scale is a crucial issue, as it can serve as a guide for optimizing ongoing and future searches. Here, we perform such analyses, considering a number of redshift, scale, and redshift-and-scale nodes. Concerning the -space analysis of , cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations are crucial, as they lead the neutrino mass constraints. Interestingly, some data combinations suggest a nonzero value for the neutrino mass with significance. The most constraining bound we find is at 95% confidence level (CL) in the -bin, a limit that barely depends on the data combination. Regarding the redshift- and scale-dependent neutrino mass constraints, high redshifts () and scales in the range provide the best constraints. The least constraining bounds are obtained at very low redshifts [0, 0.5] and also at very small scales () due to the absence of observations. Highly relevant is the case of the [100, 1100], redshift-scale bin, where a evidence for a nonzero neutrino mass is obtained for all data combinations. The bound from CMB alone at 68% CL is , and the one for the full dataset is , clearly suggesting a nonzero neutrino mass at these scales, possibly related to a deviation of the integrated Sachs-Wolfe amplitude in this redshift range. Concerning the analysis of in the -space, at intermediate scales ranging from to , accurate CMB data provide very strong bounds, the most robust one being , comparable to the standard expected value without a -bin analysis. If a nonzero neutrino mass is considered, the bounds on the values at the different -bins are largely unaffected, and the 95% CL tightest limit we find for the neutrino mass in this case is from the full dataset. Finally, the and analyses of indicate a high constraining power of cosmological observations at high redshifts and intermediate scales when extracting the binned values of this parameter.