The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: weighing the neutrino mass using the galaxy power spectrum of the CMASS sample

We measure the sum of the neutrino particle masses using the three-dimensional galaxy power spectrum of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 9 the constant MASS (CMASS) galaxy sample. Combined with the cosmic microwave background, supernova and additional baryonic acoustic oscillation data, we find upper 95 per cent confidence limits (CL) of the neutrino mass Sigma m(nu) < 0.340 eV within a flat Lambda cold dark matter (Lambda CDM) background, and Sigma m(nu) < 0.821 eV, assuming a more general background cosmological model. The number of neutrino species is measured to be N-eff = 4.308 +/- 0.794 and 4.032(-0.894)(+0.870) for these two cases, respectively. We study and quantify the effect of several factors on the neutrino measurements, including the galaxy power spectrum bias model, the effect of redshift-space distortion, the cut-off scale of the power spectrum and the choice of additional data. The impact of neutrinos with unknown masses on other cosmological parameter measurements is investigated. The fractional matter density and the Hubble parameter are measured to be Omega(M) = 0.2796 +/- 0.0097, H-0 = 69.72(-0.91)(+0.90) km s(-1) Mpc(-1) (flat ACDM) and Omega(M) = 0.2798(-0.0136)(+0.0132) km s(-1) Mpc(-1) (more general background model). Based on a Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parametrization of the equation-of-state w of dark energy, we find that w = -1 is consistent with observations, even allowing for neutrinos. Similarly, the curvature (K) and the running of the spectral index alpha(s) are both consistent with zero. The tensor-to-scalar ratio is constrained down to r < 0.198 (95 per cent CL, flat Lambda CDM) and r < 0.440 (95 per cent CL, more general background model).