Probing relic neutrino decays with 21 cm cosmology

Abstract: We show how 21 cm cosmology can test relic neutrino radiative decays into sterile neutrinos. Using recent EDGES results, we derive constraints on the lifetime of the decaying neutrinos. If the EDGES anomaly will be confirmed, then there are two solutions, one for much longer and one for much shorter lifetimes than the age of the universe, showing how relic neutrino radiative decays can explain the anomaly in a simple way. We also show how to combine EDGES results with those from radio background observations, showing that potentially the ARCADE 2 excess can be also reproduced together with the EDGES anomaly within the proposed non-standard cosmological scenario. Our calculation of the specific intensity at the redshifts probed by EDGES can be also applied to the case of decaying dark matter and it also corrects a flawed expression appeared in previous literature.