Related papers: Exploring the String Axiverse with Precision Black…
Axion dark matter thermalizes by gravitational self-interactions and forms a Bose-Einstein condensate. We show that the rethermalization of the axion fluid during the initial collapse of large scale overdensities near cosmic dawn transports…
The $\mu$eV-mass axion is one of the most promising candidates for cold dark matter, and remains to be a well-motivated solution to the CP problem of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) via the Peccei-Quinn mechanism. In this paper, we propose a…
We present novel findings concerning the parameter space of axion stars, extended object forming in dense dark matter environments through gravitational condensation. We emphasize their formation within the dense minihalos that potentially…
We study closed string axions in type IIB orientifold compactifications. We show that for natural values of the background fluxes the moduli stabilisation mechanism of the LARGE Volume Scenario (LVS) gives rise to an axiverse characterised…
Light Axionic Dark Matter, motivated by string theory, is increasingly favored for the "no-WIMP era". Galaxy formation is suppressed below a Jeans scale, of $\simeq 10^8 M_\odot$ by setting the axion mass to, $m_B \sim 10^{-22}$eV, and the…
Dark gauge sectors and axions are well-motivated in string theory. We demonstrate that if a confining gauge sector gives rise to dark glueballs that are a fraction of the dark matter, and the associated axion has a decay constant near the…
Black holes are the densest form of energy, and in the presence of compact dimensions black objects may take one of several forms including the black-hole and the black-string, the simplest relevant background being R^{3+1} * S^1. Recent…
In a recent paper we pointed out that supermassive black holes, with masses ranging from $10^5$ to $10^{10} M_\odot$ form naturally at cosmic dawn if the dark matter is QCD axions or axion-like particles with mass $m > 10^{-16}\,…
This paper discusses the gravitational scattering of a straight, infinitely long test cosmic string by a black hole. We present numerical results that probe the two-dimensional parameter space of impact parameter and initial velocity and…
A non-negligible fraction of the QCD axion dark matter may form gravitationally bound Bose Einstein condensates, which are commonly known as axion stars or axion clumps. Such astrophysical objects have been recently proposed as the cause…
Detection of axion field can unfold intriguing facets of our universe in several astrophysical and cosmological scenarios. In four dimensions, such a field owes its origin to the completely anti-symmetric Kalb-Ramond field strength tensor.…
Axion is one of the most popular candidates of the cosmological dark matter. Recent studies considering the misalignment production of axions suggest some benchmark axion mass ranges near $m_a \sim 20$ $\mu$eV. For such axion mass, the…
String theories suggest the existence of a plethora of axion-like fields with masses spread over a huge number of decades. Here we show that these ideas lend themselves to a model of quintessence with no super-Planckian field excursions and…
Axions constitute a well-motivated dark matter candidate, and if PQ symmetry breaking occurred after inflation, it should be possible to make a clean prediction for the relation between the axion mass and the axion dark matter density. We…
We pioneer the black hole mass gap as a powerful new tool for constraining new particles. A new particle that couples to the Standard Model---such as an axion---acts as an additional source of loss in the cores of population-III stars,…
Dyonic black holes with string-loop corrections are studied in the near-horizon region. In perturbative heterotic string theory compactified to four dimensions with N=2 supersymmetry, in the first order in string-loop expansion parameter,…
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration has recently reported strong evidence for a stochastic process affecting the 12.5 yr dataset of pulsar timing residuals. We show that the signal can…
Black holes, the simplest solution to Einstein's field equations, do not emit light, making their observations a major challenge for researchers. However, discovery of binary black holes (BBHs) in 2015 by LIGO has transformed the study of…
We investigate the interior of AdS black holes under finite shear strain in a class of holographic axion models, which are widely used to describe strongly-coupled systems with broken translations. We demonstrate that the shear anisotropy…
The hitherto unprecedented angular resolution of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has created exciting opportunities in the search for new physics. Recently, the linear polarization of radiation emitted near the supermassive black hole…