Can cosmology detect hierarchical neutrino masses?

Abstract

We have carefully analysed the potential of future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and Large Scale Structure (LSS) measurements to probe neutrino masses. We perform a Fisher matrix analysis on a 9-dimensional cosmological parameter space and find that data from the Planck CMB experiment combined with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) can measure a neutrino mass of 0.12 eV at 95% conf. This is almost at the level of the 0.06 eV mass suggested by current neutrino oscillation data. A future galaxy survey with an order of magnitude larger survey volume than the SDSS would allow for a neutrino mass determination of 0.03-0.05 eV (95% conf.).