Mass-Varying Neutrinos from an Inverse Symmetron
Abstract
Neutrinos enter cosmology in different ways and are constrained by distinct observational probes across different epochs: as a relativistic species at high redshift, as a massive but clustering-suppressing component at low redshift, and as a particle physics observable in laboratory experiments. Low (verging on negative) bounds on neutrino mass from galaxy surveys motivate exploration of models where neutrinos may couple to dark energy, causing their mass to vary over cosmic evolution. If the coupling involves an inverse phase transition (symmetry broken, rather than restored, as neutrinos become nonrelativistic) this can tame instabilities in neutrino growth, appear as a lower neutrino mass in galaxy surveys, and add extra suppression to the matter power spectrum. We find that the late-time decoupling shuts down the fifth force and inhibits the excessive growth of neutrino perturbations, thereby eliminating linear-regime instabilities. The model may potentially address the Hubble tension via an early dark energy component localized around the time of recombination.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{baidya2026massvarying,
title = {{Mass-Varying Neutrinos from an Inverse Symmetron}},
author = {Mainak Baidya and Øyvind Christiansen and Vitor da Fonseca and Eric V. Linder and David F. Mota},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.07391},
eprint = {2606.07391},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.07391},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Mass-Varying Neutrinos from an Inverse Symmetron
AU - Mainak Baidya
AU - Øyvind Christiansen
AU - Vitor da Fonseca
AU - Eric V. Linder
AU - David F. Mota
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.07391
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.07391
AB - Neutrinos enter cosmology in different ways and are constrained by distinct observational probes across different epochs: as a relativistic species at high redshift, as a massive but clustering-suppressing component at low redshift, and as a particle physics observable in laboratory experiments. Low (verging on negative) bounds on neutrino mass from galaxy surveys motivate exploration of models where neutrinos may couple to dark energy, causing their mass to vary over cosmic evolution. If the coupling involves an inverse phase transition (symmetry broken, rather than restored, as neutrinos become nonrelativistic) this can tame instabilities in neutrino growth, appear as a lower neutrino mass in galaxy surveys, and add extra suppression to the matter power spectrum. We find that the late-time decoupling shuts down the fifth force and inhibits the excessive growth of neutrino perturbations, thereby eliminating linear-regime instabilities. The model may potentially address the Hubble tension via an early dark energy component localized around the time of recombination.
ER -