Related papers: The Cosmological Axino Problem
We reconsider post-inflation gravitino production, in the context of hidden sector supergravity models. We discuss the possible role of supersymmetry breaking from finite temperature effects in enhancing the rate for gravitino production…
Flat directions in generic supersymmetric theories can change the thermal history of the Universe. A novel scenario was proposed earlier where the vacuum expectation value of the flat directions induces large masses for all the gauge bosons…
One of the possible explanations for the dark matter needed in the standard cosmological model is so-called warm dark matter, in the form of right-handed ("sterile") neutrinos with a mass in the keV range. I describe how various properties…
We investigate the possibility that the Peccei-Quinn phase transition occurs at a temperature far below the symmetry breaking scale. Low phase transition temperatures are typical in supersymmetric theories, where symmetry breaking fields…
We reconsider cosmological constraints on extra dimension theories from the excess production of Kaluza-Klein gravitons. We point out that, if the normalcy temperature is above 1 GeV, then graviton states produced at this temperature will…
We revisit the formation of a thermal population of hadronic axions in nonstandard cosmologies, in light of the recent developments in obtaining continuous and smooth interaction rates for both the gluon and photon couplings. For certain…
We point out that the axino predicted as the supersymmetric partner of the axion is a good candidate for the recently proposed sterile neutrino cool dark matter. The axino mass falls into the right range in the context of gauge mediated…
Extremely weakly interacting particles like the gravitino may be stable enough on cosmological time scales to constitute a good dark matter candidate even in the presence of R-parity violation. We consider the possibility that the recently…
Cosmology now provides unambiguous, quantitative evidence for new particle physics. I discuss the implications of cosmology for supersymmetry and vice versa. Topics include: motivations for supersymmetry; supersymmetry breaking; dark…
We explore the phenomenology of QCD axion and axion-like particle (ALP) dark matter production via misalignment during inflationary reheating. We investigate scenarios involving inflaton oscillating in a generic potential $\sim \phi^n$,…
Supersymmetric models with t-b-\tau Yukawa unification at M_{GUT} qualitatively predict a sparticle mass spectrum including first and second generation scalars at the 3--15 TeV scale, third generation scalars at the (few) TeV scale and…
I discuss the essential features of the QCD axion: the strong CP solution and hence its theoretical necessity. I also review the axion and axino effects on astrophysics and cosmology, in particular with emphasis on their role in the dark…
The current cosmological constraints on a dark matter axion are reviewed. We describe the basic mechanisms by which axions are created in the early universe, both in the standard thermal scenario in which axion strings form and in…
Gravitino production and decay in the inflationary universe are reexanimed. Assuming that gravitino mainly decays into photon and photino, we have calculated the upperbound of the reheating temperature. Compared to previous works, we have…
A QCD axion with a decay constant below $ 10 ^{ 11} ~{\rm GeV} $ is a strongly-motivated extension to the Standard Model, though its relic abundance from the misalignment mechanism or decay of cosmic defects is insufficient to explain the…
We investigate two cosmological axion problems (isocurvature fluctuations and domain-wall formation) in chaotic inflationary universe. It is believed that these problems are solved if potential for the Peccei-Quinn scalar field is very…
Many models of supersymmetry breaking, in the context of either supergravity or superstring theories, predict the presence of particles with weak scale masses and Planck-suppressed couplings. Typical examples are the scalar moduli and the…
We explore several supersymmetric alternatives to explain predictions for the cosmic ray positron excess. Light sneutrino or neutralino LSP's, and a fine-tuned model designed to provide a delta-function input, can give adequate statistical…
Weak scale supersymmetry is a highly motivated extension of the Standard Model that has a strong degree of support from data. It provides several viable dark matter candidates: the lightest neutralino (a WIMP), the gravitino, and the…
We address the cosmological moduli/gravitino problems and the issue of too little thermal but excessive non-thermal dark matter from the decays of moduli. The main examples we study are the G2-MSSM models arising from M theory…