The neutrino mass bound from WMAP-3, the baryon acoustic peak, the SNLS supernovae and the Lyman-alpha forest

Abstract

We have studied bounds on the neutrino mass using new data from the WMAP 3 year data, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey measurement of the baryon acoustic peak, the Type Ia supernovae from SNLS, and the Lyman-alpha forest. We find that even in the most general models with a running spectral index where the number of neutrinos and the dark energy equation of state are allowed to vary, the 95% C.L. bound on the sum of neutrino masses is sum m_nu < 0.62 eV (95% C.L.), a bound which we believe to be robust. In the more often used constrained analysis with N_nu =3, w = -1, and alpha_s = 0, we find a bound of 0.48 eV without using the Lyman-alpha data. If Lyman-alpha data is used, the bound shrinks to \sum m_nu < 0.2-0.4 eV (95% C.L.), depending strongly on the Lyman-alpha analysis used.

13 pages, 3 figures, matches version to appear in JCAP. The paper now includes an analysis with the WMAP-3 data. It also includes an improved analysis of the SDSS Baryon Acoustic Oscillation data, providing a new analytic fitting formula for the inclusion of non-zero neutrino masses in the BAO data analysis