Cosmological Implications of Massive, Unstable Neutrinos (New and Improved)

Technical Report · Thu Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/12204431· OSTI ID:12204431

Dicus, D. A.; Kolb, W. W.; Teplitz, V. L.

The cosmological consequences are considered of the existence of massive, neutral, weakly interacting leptons (nu/sub H/). Bounds are calculated on the nu/sub H/ mass, lifetime, and allowed interaction strength by assuming minimal modification of the standard big bang model. The chief conclusions are: The nu/sub H/ may be stable if its mass is greater than a few GeV. For intermediate masses, for which the nu/sub H/ must be unstable, if its principal decay mode creates photons, masses less than 10 exp -2 MeV are ruled out and its lifetime must be less than one year. If the nu/sub H/ decays exclusively into neutrinos, it may have a considerably longer lifetime and give rise to a present day energy density sufficiently high to make the universe radiation dominated and closed

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., Austin, TX (United States). Center for Particle Theory
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AS05-76ER03992
• OSTI ID: 12204431
• Report Number(s): ORO--3992-318
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS