Prospects for measuring neutrino mass with 21-cm forest

Abstract

Both particle physics experiments and cosmological observations have been used to explore neutrino properties. Cosmological researches of neutrinos often rely on the early-universe cosmic microwave background observations or other late-universe probes, which mostly focus on large-scale structures. We introduce a distinct probe, the 21-cm forest, that differs from other probes in both time and scale. Actually, the 21-cm forest is a unique tool for studying small-scale structures in the early universe. Below the free-streaming scale, massive neutrinos suppress the matter power spectrum, influencing small-scale fluctuations in the distribution of matter. The one-dimensional (1D) power spectrum of the 21-cm forest can track these fluctuations across different scales, similar to the matter power spectrum, providing an effective method to constrain neutrino mass. Although heating effects in the early universe can also impact the 1D power spectrum of the 21-cm forest, we assess the potential of the 21-cm forest as a tool for measuring neutrino mass, given that the temperature of the intergalactic medium can be constrained using other methods within a certain range. In the ideal scenario, the 21-cm forest observation will have the ability to constrain the total neutrino mass to around 0.1 eV. With the accumulation of observational data and advancements in observational technology, the 21-cm forest holds great promise as an emerging and potent tool for measuring neutrino mass.