Distinguishing between neutrinos and time-varying dark energy through cosmic time

We study the correlations between parameters characterizing neutrino physics and the evolution of dark energy. Using a fluid approach, we show that time-varying dark energy models exhibit degeneracies with the cosmic neutrino background over extended periods of the cosmic history, leading to a degraded estimation of the total mass and number of species of neutrinos. We investigate how to break degeneracies and combine multiple probes across cosmic time to anchor the behavior of the two components. We use Planck cosmic microwave background data and baryonic acoustic oscillation measurements from the BOSS, SDSS, and 6dF surveys to present current limits on the model parameters, and then forecast the future reach from the CMB Stage-4 and DESI experiments. We show that a multiprobe analysis of current data provides only marginal improvement on the determination of the individual parameters and no reduction of the correlations. Future observations will better distinguish the neutrino mass and preserve the current sensitivity to the number of species even in case of a time-varying dark energy component.