Probing the Effective Number of Neutrino Species with Cosmic Microwave Background

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  • 31 July 2008
Abstract
We discuss how much we can probe the effective number of neutrino species N_nu with cosmic microwave background alone. Using the data of WMAP, ACBAR, CBI and BOOMERANG experiments, we obtain a constraint on the effective number of neutrino species as 0.96< N_nu <7.94 at 95% C.L. for a power-law LCDM flat universe model. The limit is improved to be 1.39 < N_nu < 6.38 at 95% C.L. if we assume that the baryon density, N_nu and the helium abundance are related by the big bang nucleosynthesis theory. We also provide a forecast for the PLANCK experiment using a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach. In addition to constraining N_nu, we investigate how the big bang nucleosynthesis relation affects the estimation for these parameters and the other cosmological parameters.

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