Constraints on the neutrino mass and mass hierarchy from cosmological observations

Abstract: Considering the mass splitting between three active neutrinos, we represent the new constraints on the sum of neutrino mass $\sum m_\nu$ by updating the anisotropic analysis of Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) scale in the CMASS and LOWZ galaxy samples from Data Release 12 of the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS DR12). Combining the BAO data of 6dFGS, MGS, LOWZ and CMASS with $\textit{Planck}$~2015 data of temperature anisotropy and polarizations of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), we find that the $95\%$ C.L. upper bounds on $\sum m_\nu$ refer to $\sum m_{\nu,\rm NH}<0.18$ eV for normal hierarchy (NH), $\sum m_{\nu,\rm IH}<0.20$ eV for inverted hierarchy (IH) and $\sum m_{\nu,\rm DH}<0.15$ eV for degenerate hierarchy (DH) respectively, and the normal hierarchy is slightly preferred than the inverted one ($\Delta \chi^2\equiv \chi^2_{\rm NH}-\chi^2_{\rm IH} \simeq -3.4$). In addition, the additional relativistic degrees of freedom and massive sterile neutrinos are neither favored at present.