Neutrinos in Astrophysics and Cosmology: Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI) 2020 Lectures

Abstract

I introduce the consequences of neutrino mass and mixing in the dense environments of the early Universe and in astrophysical environments. Thermal and matter effects are reviewed in the context of a two-neutrino formalism, with methods of extension to multiple neutrinos. The observed large neutrino mixing angles place the strongest constraint on cosmological lepton (or neutrino) asymmetries, while new sterile neutrinos provide a wealth of possible new physics, including lepton asymmetry generation as well as candidates for dark matter. I also review cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure constraints on neutrino mass and energy density. Lastly, I review how X-ray astronomy has become a branch of neutrino physics in searches for keV-scale sterile neutrino dark matter radiative decay.

Comments: Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI) 2020 Lectures Chapter; 45 pages, 17 figures; v2: fixed reference arXiv numbers and updated discussion on degenerate BBN and X-ray searches