A Growing Neutrino Mass from an Evolving MOND Scale: A de Sitter-Unruh Reading of the DESI Sigma-m_nu Anomaly
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The de Sitter-Unruh modified-inertia proposal sets the MOND acceleration scale by the dark-energy density, a0 = cH_Lambda/Z = (c/2)sqrt(G rho_DE) = c^2 sqrt(Lambda/32pi) ~ 9.36e-11 m/s^2 (Z=sqrt(32pi/3)~5.789), so a0 evolves as a0(z)/a0(0)=sqrt(rho_DE(z)/rho_DE(0)) on the DESI-preferred evolving-dark-energy branch. This note draws one consequence and confronts it with a live anomaly. Evolving dark energy implies a rolling quintessence field; the swampland Distance Conjecture then predicts a tower of states whose mass tracks that field. The framework's vacuum scale E_dS = rho_DE^(1/4) ~ 2.24 meV sits, uniquely among Standard-Model scales, within one order of magnitude of the neutrino mass scale (the electron is 1e8, atomic-MOND accelerations 1e33, away) -- so the neutrino is the one place the framework's de Sitter vacuum and a particle scale meet. IF the lightest neutrino is the lightest tower state, its mass grows from past to present, locked to a0(z) with no free amplitude: propagating the public DESI w0wa posterior gives m_nu(z=3)/m_nu(0) ~ 0.59-0.75, and a mass that FREEZES by recombination. The testable consequence is sharp: the CMB imprints a neutrino 28-46% LIGHTER than today's, so a constant-mass fit to CMB+BAO under-counts the late-time mass -- yielding an inferred Sigma m_nu^eff ~ 0.032-0.042 eV when the true present-day value sits at the normal-ordering oscillation floor (0.059 eV). This is the right sign and right rough magnitude to be the DESI 'negative effective neutrino mass' anomaly. LIMITS stated plainly: nothing here DERIVES m_nu (the absolute scale is free; the meV match is generic to any rho_cosmic^(1/4)); the signature is partly DEGENERATE with the standard 'dynamical dark energy mimics negative mass' reading; the framework-distinctive content is the LOCK of the mass evolution to rho_DE^(1/2), testable only by a joint CMB-vs-late-time Sigma m_nu fit constrained by a0(z). This is a prediction about the NEUTRINO/DARK SECTOR ONLY -- NOT a theory of everything (the charged-lepton and quark masses remain untouched and walled). It is decided by the same DESI w(z) gate as the a0(z) prediction, sharpened by CMB-S4 + DESI-DR3/Euclid growth (~2027-2030), and it DIES if DESI converges to w=-1. All numbers are reproducible from the public repository. Supplements the author's published one-parameter de Sitter-Unruh papers (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20973740, 10.5281/zenodo.20965016, 10.5281/zenodo.20938891) and does not restate or strengthen any claim about deriving the Standard Model.
Author: Zimmerman, Carl P.
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7166291863