Published February 15, 2024 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Atacama Cosmology Telescope: The persistence of neutrino self-interaction in cosmological measurements

Abstract

We use data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) DR4 to search for the presence of neutrino self-interaction in the cosmic microwave background. Consistent with prior works, the posterior distributions we find are bimodal, with one mode consistent with ΛCDM and one where neutrinos strongly self-interact. By combining ACT data with large-scale information from WMAP, we find that a delayed onset of neutrino free streaming caused by significantly strong neutrino self-interaction is compatible with these data at the 23σ level. As seen in the past, the preference shifts to ΛCDM with the inclusion of Planck data. We determine that the preference for strong neutrino self-interaction is largely driven by angular scales corresponding to 700 1000 in the ACT E-mode polarization data. This region is expected to be key to discriminate between neutrino self-interacting modes and will soon be probed with more sensitive data.

Copyright and License

© 2024 American Physical Society.

Acknowledgement

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PhysRevD.109.043501.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

ISSN
2470-0029

Funding

National Science Foundation
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship DGE-1656466
European Research Council
894169
National Science Foundation
AST-2008696
National Science Foundation
AST-1814971
National Science Foundation
AST-2108126
National Science Foundation
PHY-1607611
National Science Foundation
AST-2108536
University of Toronto
National Research Foundation
Perimeter Institute
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
National Science Foundation
AST-0408698
National Science Foundation
AST-0965625
National Science Foundation
AST-1440226
National Science Foundation
PHY-0355328
National Science Foundation
PHY-0855887
National Science Foundation
PHY-1214379
California Institute of Technology
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania
Canada Foundation for Innovation
Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NNX13AE56G
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NNX14AB58G
Government of Ontario
Ministry of Colleges and Universities.