Upper Bound of Neutrino Masses from Combined Cosmological Observations and Particle Physics Experiments.

We investigate the impact of prior models on the upper bound of the sum of neutrino masses, ∑m_{ν}. Using data from the large scale structure of galaxies, cosmic microwave background, type Ia supernovae, and big bang nucleosynthesis, we argue that cosmological neutrino mass and hierarchy determination should be pursued using exact models, since approximations might lead to incorrect and nonphysical bounds. We compare constraints from physically motivated neutrino mass models (i.