Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2410.01897

Testing the robustness of the BAO determination in the presence of massive neutrinos

Adriana Nadal-Matosas·Héctor Gil-Marín·Licia Verde
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We study the robustness of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature in galaxy clustering in the presence of massive neutrinos. In the standard BAO analysis pipeline a reference cosmological model is assumed to boost the BAO peak through the so-called reconstruction technique and in the modelling of the BAO feature to extract the cosmological information. State-of-the art spectroscopic BAO measurements, such as the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument claim an aggregate precision of 0.52$\%$ on the BAO scale, with a systematic error of 0.1$\%$ associated to the assumption of a reference cosmology when measuring and analyzing the BAO feature. While the systematic effect induced by this arbitrary choice of fiducial cosmology has been studied for a wide range of $Λ$CDM-like models, it has not yet been tested for reference cosmologies with massive neutrinos with the precision afforded by next generation surveys. In this context, we employ the Quijote high-resolution dark-matter simulations with haloes above a mass of $M\sim 2\times10^{13} h^{-1}M_{\odot}$, with different values for the total sum of neutrinos masses, $\sum m_ν[{\rm eV}] = 0,\, 0.1,\, 0,2,\, 0.4$ to study and quantify the impact of the pipeline's built-in assumption of massless neutrinos on the measurement of the BAO signal, with a special focus on the BAO reconstruction technique. We determine that any additional systematic bias introduced by the assumption of massless neutrinos is no greater than $0.1\%$ ($0.2\%$) for the isotropic (anisotropic) measurement. We expect these conclusions also hold for galaxies provided that neutrino properties do not alter the galaxy-halo connection.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph.CO

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Adriana Nadal-Matosas, Héctor Gil-Marín, Licia Verde. 2025-01-16. Testing the robustness of the BAO determination in the presence of massive neutrinos. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516%2F2025%2F01%2F045

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Hidden Vela Supercluster Revealed by First Hybrid Redshift & Peculiar Velocity Reconstruction

A large fraction of the extragalactic sky is obscured by foreground dust and stars along the plane of the Milky Way, leaving a major gap (~ 20%) in whole-sky maps of large-scale structures -- an incompleteness that is even more severe for peculiar velocity samples. This has long limited an unambiguous interpretation of observed cosmic flows and their connection to the underlying mass-density field. We present a new hybrid reconstruction methodology which combines 65,518 galaxy peculiar velocity distances from the CF4++ catalogue (Courtois2025) with 8283 new galaxy redshifts observed near the southern Galactic plane (|b| <= 10 degrees) Zone of Avoidance. A major advance is the inclusion of 2176 high-sensitivity, interferometric HI redshifts obtained with the SARAO MeerKAT telescope which for the first time provide coverage of the innermost 3degrees-wide strip of the southern ZOA and to unprecedented depth. This hybrid redshifts & peculiar velocities approach yields a substantially revised view of the inferred overdensities in and around the ZOA. In particular, the Vela supercluster emerges as a dominant mass concentration, rivaling the Shapley concentration and exceeding the mass associated with Laniakea and the Great Attractor region. With a total mass of 33.8 10^16 Msol, a characteristic radius of 70 hmpc, and a double core morphology at a distance of 189 hmpc, Vela dominates the mass budget and gravitational influence of the southern Zone of Avoidance. These results provide the most complete and dynamically consistent picture to date of the southern Zone of Avoidance and demonstrate the transformative potential of hybrid reconstruction techniques tailored for the next generation of large-scale surveys.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2026

Beyond $w_0-w_a$ and Phantom Crossing: Testing Models of Coupled Dark Sector

The combination of cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements with distance measurements from baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and type Ia supernovae (SNIa) suggests that dark energy is dynamical, with an equation of state crossing the phantom divide at low redshifts. This feature can not be described within canonically normalized, minimally coupled, self-interacting scalar field models. We investigate the possibility of achieving phantom crossing by introducing an interaction in the dark sector such that the dark matter particle mass is dependent on the dark energy field $ϕ$ as $m \propto ϕ^α$. We consider a self-interacting potential of the inverse power-law form $V \propto ϕ^{-β}$. We implement this model both at the background and perturbative levels in a Boltzmann solver and use a bayesian framework to constrain its parameters using using CMB, BAO and SNIa data. We find best-fits that have similar goodness-of-fits as the commonly used phenomenological $w_0-w_a$ parameterization, providing a more fundamental understanding of the dark sector.

astro-ph.CO↗
arXiv2026

Constraining spinning primordial black holes with interstellar dust heating

Primordial black holes (PBHs) are a well-motivated dark matter candidate, and their cosmic abundance is constrained by a variety of observational probes. PBHs in the mass range $10^{15}\,\text{g}\,{-}\,10^{17}\,\text{g}$ are evaporating today via Hawking radiation, a process that can heat interstellar dust and modify its thermal emission. Recent studies have used this effect to place constraints on the abundance of non-spinning PBHs. We extend this approach by investigating the influence of PBH spin on dust-heating constraints. Furthermore, we account for secondary photons that originate not only from the decay of gauge bosons but also from the decay of hadrons produced via the fragmentation of primary quarks and gluons emitted through Hawking radiation. By comparing the dust heating rate induced by spinning PBHs with the maximum cooling rate of dust, considering both silicate and graphite grains, we derive new upper limits on the fraction of dark matter in the form of PBHs, $f_{\rm PBH}$. Our results show that the constraints depend on both PBH mass and spin. Smaller PBHs with higher spin yield stronger limits. For example, in the cases we investigated, the strongest constraint is $f_{\rm PBH} \sim 1.5 \times 10^{-4}$ for $M_{\rm PBH} = 10^{15}{\rm g}$ and spin parameter $a_{*} = 0.9999$. Although these limits are less stringent than existing constraints in the same mass range, they provide a distinct and complementary approach to constraining the abundance of PBHs.

astro-ph.CO↗