Neutrinos in the early universe

The neutrinos from the Big Bang or the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) carry precious information from the early epoch when our universe was only 1s old. Although not yet directly detected, CNB may be revealed indirectly through cosmological observations due to neutrino important cosmological influ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:New astronomy reviews 2012-12, Vol.56 (6), p.169-180
Main Authors: Kirilova, D., Frere, J.-M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The neutrinos from the Big Bang or the Cosmic Neutrino Background (CNB) carry precious information from the early epoch when our universe was only 1s old. Although not yet directly detected, CNB may be revealed indirectly through cosmological observations due to neutrino important cosmological influence. We review the cosmological role of neutrinos and the cosmological constraints on neutrino characteristics. Namely, we discuss the impact of neutrinos in the early universe: the cosmic expansion, neutrino decoupling, the role of neutrinos in the primordial production of light elements, leptogenesis, etc. We briefly discuss the role of neutrino at later stages of the universe. Due to the considerable cosmological influence of neutrinos, cosmological bounds on neutrino properties from observational data exist. We review the cosmological constraints on the effective number of neutrino species, neutrino mass and mixing parameters, lepton number of the universe, presence of sterile neutrino, etc.
ISSN:1387-6473
1872-9630
DOI:10.1016/j.newar.2012.10.001