Related papers: Moduli-Induced Axion Problem
We consider cosmological consequences of string theory tachyon condensation. We show that it is very difficult to obtain inflation in the simplest versions of this theory. Typically, inflation in these theories could occur only at…
Axions are very light, very weakly interacting particles postulated more than 30 years ago in the context of the Standard Model of particle physics. Their existence could explain the missing dark matter of the universe. However, despite…
A number of proposed and ongoing experiments search for axion dark matter with a mass nearing the limit set by small scale structure (${\cal O} ( 10 ^{ - 21 } {\rm eV} ) $). We consider the late universe cosmology of these models, showing…
We discuss the possibility of generating adiabatic density perturbations from spatial fluctuations in the inflaton decay rate which are due to quantum fluctuations of light moduli fields coupling to the inflaton. We point out that…
We explore the generation of large-scale magnetic fields in the so-called moduli inflation. The hypercharge electromagnetic fields couple to not only a scalar field but also a pseudoscalar one, so that the conformal invariance of the…
We describe a general scenario, dubbed "Inflatable Dark Matter", in which the density of dark matter particles can be reduced through a short period of late-time inflation in the early universe. The overproduction of dark matter that is…
We critically review the role of cosmological moduli in determining the post-inflationary history of the universe. Moduli are ubiquitous in string and M-theory constructions of beyond the Standard Model physics, where they parametrize the…
It was recently pointed out that the fundamental Planck mass could be close to the TeV scale with the observed weakness of gravity at long distances being due the existence of new sub-millimeter spatial dimensions. In this picture the…
We study the effects of particle production on the evolution of the inflaton field in an axion monodromy model with the goal of discovering in which situations the resulting dynamics will be consistent with the {\it swampland constraints}.…
String theory abounds with light scalar fields (the dilaton and various moduli) which create a host of observational problems, and notably some serious cosmological difficulties similar to the ones associated with the Polonyi field in the…
We study the general multi-axion systems, focusing on the possibility of large field inflation driven by axions. We find that through axion mixing from a non-diagonal metric on the moduli space and/or from St\"uckelberg coupling to a U(1)…
We motivate Higgsino dark matter from a solution to the cosmological moduli/gravitino problem. Cosmological moduli/gravitino should be heavy enough to decay before the onset of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, and this requirement typically forces…
A model is presented in the philosophy of the "String Axiverse" of Arvanitaki et al (arXiv:0905.4720v2 [hep-th]) that incorporates a coupling of ultralight axions to their corresponding moduli through the mass term. The light fields roll in…
We derive cosmological constraints on the masses of generic scalar fields which decay only through gravitationally suppressed interactions into unstable gravitinos and ordinary particles in the supersymmetric standard model. For the…
Recently, an interesting class of the direct gauge mediation supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking models are proposed, in which the minimum of the potential of the SUSY breaking field is determined by the inverted hierarchy mechanism. We consider…
In supersymmetric theories a field can develop a vacuum expectation value $M \gg 10^3\,{\rm GeV}$, even though its mass $m$ is of order $10^2$ to $10^3\,{\rm GeV}$. The finite temperature in the early Universe can hold such a field at zero,…
Recently it has been suggested that dark radiation in the form of axions produced during the decay of string theory moduli fields could be responsible for the soft x-ray excess in galaxy clusters. These soft X-ray photons come about due to…
We show that the hybrid inflation is naturally realized in the framework of a supersymmetric axion model, which is consistent with the WMAP observation if the Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking scale is around 10^{15}GeV. By solving the post…
We consider cosmological perturbations caused by modulated inflaton velocity. During inflation, the inflaton motion is damped and the velocity is determined by the parameters such as couplings or masses that may depend on light…
Equipped with concrete examples of Type IIB orientifolds featuring poly-instanton corrections to the superpotential, the effects on moduli stabilization and inflationary cosmology are analyzed. Working in the framework of the LARGE volume…