How effective is Neff at discovering dark radiation in a cosmology with heavy particle decay?

Any light relic which was in thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model before it freezes out results in a shift in the effective number of neutrino species, Neff. This quantity is being measured with increasing precision, and planned experiments would seemingly rule out light particles beyond the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics 2024-01, Vol.2024 (1), p.021
Main Authors: Bleau, Katarina, Bramante, Joseph, Cappiello, Christopher
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomical models
Cosmology
Heating
High temperature
Light
Neutrinos
Particle decay
Radiation
Radiation standards
Standard model (particle physics)
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Summary:Any light relic which was in thermal equilibrium with the Standard Model before it freezes out results in a shift in the effective number of neutrino species, Neff. This quantity is being measured with increasing precision, and planned experiments would seemingly rule out light particles beyond the Standard Model, even for rather high temperature light particle freeze out. Here we explore how these bounds are loosened if the energy density of the light particles is diluted with respect to that of Standard Model radiation. This can happen if a heavy particle that is decoupled from the Standard Model decays into the Standard Model bath after the light particle freezes out. After calculating how heavy state decays alter Neff for light particles beyond the Standard Model, we focus in particular on the case that the heavy decaying particle is a gravitino, and use current bounds on Neff to place constraints on the gravitino mass and the branching ratio into light particles for different values of the reheating temperature of the Universe.
ISSN:1475-7516
1475-7516
DOI:10.1088/1475-7516/2024/01/021