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Cosmological Constraints on Neutrino Masses in Quintessential Inflation

Jamerson Rodrigues, Gabriel Rodrigues, Felipe B. M. dos Santos, Simony Santos da Costa, Jailson Alcaniz

Abstract

Quintessential inflation provides a unified description of the early and late accelerated phases of the Universe, linking the inflationary epoch to the present-day dark energy-dominated era through a single scalar degree of freedom. In this work, we explore the implications of this unification for cosmological constraints on the sum of neutrino masses. Focusing on the $α$-attractor scenario, we implement the model in a modified version of the Boltzmann solver CLASS to compute the relevant cosmological observables and perform a Bayesian parameter estimation analysis using data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs), and Type Ia supernovae. The model naturally breaks the degeneracy between the dark energy equation of state and the total neutrino mass, yielding tight upper bounds of $\sum m_ν< 0.067$ eV for flat spatial geometry and $\sum m_ν< 0.116$ eV when curvature is included. We also provide forecasts for future probes, showing that the Simons Observatory, LiteBIRD, and Euclid configurations may reduce the uncertainty on $\sum m_ν$ by $\approx 9\%$, while the precision on the quintessential parameter $α_{QI}$ is improved by $\approx 72\%$. These results highlight the importance of consistently accounting for neutrino mass when assessing the viability of extensions to the standard cosmological model.

Cosmological Constraints on Neutrino Masses in Quintessential Inflation

Abstract

Quintessential inflation provides a unified description of the early and late accelerated phases of the Universe, linking the inflationary epoch to the present-day dark energy-dominated era through a single scalar degree of freedom. In this work, we explore the implications of this unification for cosmological constraints on the sum of neutrino masses. Focusing on the -attractor scenario, we implement the model in a modified version of the Boltzmann solver CLASS to compute the relevant cosmological observables and perform a Bayesian parameter estimation analysis using data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs), and Type Ia supernovae. The model naturally breaks the degeneracy between the dark energy equation of state and the total neutrino mass, yielding tight upper bounds of eV for flat spatial geometry and eV when curvature is included. We also provide forecasts for future probes, showing that the Simons Observatory, LiteBIRD, and Euclid configurations may reduce the uncertainty on by , while the precision on the quintessential parameter is improved by . These results highlight the importance of consistently accounting for neutrino mass when assessing the viability of extensions to the standard cosmological model.
Paper Structure (9 sections, 13 equations, 3 figures, 3 tables)

This paper contains 9 sections, 13 equations, 3 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The $\alpha-$attractor Quintessential Inflation
  3. Methodology
  4. The Model
  5. The Data
  6. Real data
  7. Simulated data
  8. Results and Discussion
  9. Conclusions

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: 68% and 95% contours and normalized posteriors on the quintessential inflation model given by Eq. \ref{['Eq:CosmI']}.
  • Figure 2: 68% and 95% contours and normalized posteriors on the quintessential inflation model given by Eq. \ref{['Eq:CosmII']}.
  • Figure 3: On the left panel, we show 68% and 95% contours and normalized posteriors on the forecasted sensitivity of the quintessential inflation 'Cosmo I' model for the Simons Observatory, LiteBIRD and Euclid configurations, while the improvements on the uncertainties are shown on the right panel.