Seminars and Journal Clubs

Evolution of primordial neutrino asymmetries: towards new constraints [BEL-center:pheno]

by Cyril Pitrou

Europe/Brussels
E/3rd floor-E.349 - Seminar room (E.349) (Marc de Hemptinne (chemin du Cyclotron, 2, Louvain-la-Neuve))

E/3rd floor-E.349 - Seminar room (E.349)

Marc de Hemptinne (chemin du Cyclotron, 2, Louvain-la-Neuve)

30
Description
Contrary to charged lepton degeneracies which are tightly constrained by
the measured baryon-to-photon ratio, the allowed values of primordial
neutrino asymmetries cover a large range. In order to study the evolution of
these asymmetries in the early Universe, one needs to solve a set of
quantum kinetic equations that include vacuum mixing effects, mean-field
potentials and collisions, which represents a genuine numerical challenge.
In this talk, I will present the results of a complete calculation at the epoch of
neutrino decoupling, while laying emphasis on an effective description of
neutrino oscillations that corresponds to averaging over the shortest time
scale. In addition to reducing the computation time while preserving the
accuracy of the results, this “Adiabatic Transfer of Averaged Oscillations”
(ATAO) approximation provides a consistent framework to understand the
origin of the so-called synchronous oscillations.
This work, combined with a primordial nucleosynthesis code, provides the tools to
obtain precise constraints on primordial neutrino asymmetries, thanks to the helium-4 and deuterium
observed primordial abundances and the effective number of relativistic species constrained from CMB anisotropies.