Reionization History and Neutrino Mass

Abstract

Recent baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) distance measurements, when combined with Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations in the $\Lambda$CDM framework, lead to a preference for negative neutrino masses. We investigate whether this neutrino mass anomaly can be alleviated by a class of astrophysically motivated reionization histories. Using a frequentist analysis, we find that some reionization histories can move the best-fit value of $\sum m_\nu$ to a positive value and bring $\sum m_\nu\simeq0.06~{\rm eV}$ into the 95\% confidence interval. To separate the effect of the total optical depth from that of the details of the reionization history, we compare a high-$\tau$ history with a two-step tanh-like reionization history of the same $\tau$. The resulting $\Delta\chi^2(\sum m_\nu)$ profiles are nearly identical. This indicates that the effect is mainly driven by the total optical depth, while the details of the reionization history play only a minor role.