Abstract
Neutrino cosmology is a very interesting field of research,
where properties of some of the smallest constituents of the universe
are probed by the very largest structures of the universe; large scale
structures of the size of clusters of galaxies
and the cosmic microwave background radiation. Cosmology has, over the
last decade, provided strong limits on the total neutrino mass,
assuming that the splitting of the neutrino mass contributes
negligible to the effect of neutrinos on cosmology. There is, however,
a splitting between the masses of the individual neutrino mass
eigenstates, as shown by neutrino oscillation experiments, and
although the mass square difference is measured, the ordering of the
masses is still to be determined.
As cosmology has provided stronger limits on the total
neutrino mass than other experiments, it is hoped that cosmology also
can solve the mystery of the neutrino mass hierarchy. The goal of this
thesis is to investigate the effect of neutrino mass hierarchy on
cosmology, by translating the results of neutrino
mass experiments to a hierarchy dependent prior on the total neutrino
mass, which is then applied to cosmological parameter likelihood distributions.
It is found that adding such a hierarchy dependent prior does not
allow for a determination of the neutrino mass hierarchy from three
chosen parameters; the
spectral index, the baryon acoustic oscillation parameter A(z) and the fluctuation amplitude on cluster scales. This supports the general assumption that the neutrino mass
hierarchy can be neglected in cosmology.