Hot Dark Matter in Cosmology

Abstract

Cosmological dark matter in the form of neutrinos with masses of up to a few electron volts is known as hot dark matter. After an historical review of the subject, this article considers constraints on hot dark matter from current data on neutrino oscillations and on cosmology. The atmospheric neutrino oscillation data imply a lower limit on the HDM contribution to the cosmological density $Ω_ν\gsim 0.001$. The possible improvement of low-$Ω_m$ flat ($Λ$CDM) cosmological models with the addition of light neutrinos appears to be rather limited, but$Λ$CDM models with $Ω_ν\lsim 0.1$ may be consistent with presently available data. Data expected soon may permit detection of such a hot dark matter contribution, or alternatively provide stronger upper limits on $Ω_ν$ and neutrino masses.