Probability densities of the effective neutrino masses m_β and m_ββ

Abstract

We compute the probability densities of the effective neutrino masses m_β and m_ββ using the Kernel Density Estimate (KDE) approach applied to a distribution of points in the (m_min ,m_ββ) and (m_β ,m_ββ) planes, obtained using the available Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs) of the neutrino mixing angles and mass differences, with the additional constraints coming from cosmological data on the sum of the neutrino masses. We show that the reconstructed probability densities strongly depend on the assumed set of cosmological data: for ∑_jm_j ≤ 0.68 eV at 95% CL a sensitive portion of the allowed values are already excluded by null results of experiments searching for m_ββ and m_β, whereas in the case ∑_jm_j ≤ 0.23 eV at 95% CL the bulk of the probability densities are below the current bounds.