Related papers: Moduli or Not
Light scalar fields called moduli arise from a variety of different models involving supersymmetry and/or string theory; thus their existence is a generic prediction of leading theories for physics beyond the standard model. They also…
The detection of dark matter is central to particle physics and cosmology. Current fashionable supersymmetric models provide a dark matter candidate, the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). When combined with fairly well understood…
We study cosmological constraints on dark pure Yang-Mills sectors. Dark glueballs are overproduced for large regions of ultraviolet parameter space. The problem may be alleviated in two ways: via a large preferential reheating into the…
We analyze a simple Split Supersymmetry scenario where fermion masses come from anomaly mediation, yielding m_s ~ 1000 TeV, m_{3/2} ~ 100 TeV, and m_f ~ 1 TeV. We consider non-thermal dark matter production in the presence of moduli, and we…
The region of moduli space of string theories which is most likely to describe the "real world" is where the string coupling is about unity and the volume of extra compact dimensions is about the same size as the string volume. Here we map…
Moduli fields, which parameterize perturbative flat directions of the potential in supersymmetric theories, are natural candidates to act as inflatons. An inflationary potential on moduli space can result if the scale of dynamical SUSY…
The detection of the theoretically expected dark matter is central to particle physics and cosmology. Current fashionable supersymmetric models provide a natural dark matter candidate which is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). The…
Moduli fields generically produce strong dark matter -- radiation and baryon -- radiation isocurvature perturbations through their decay if they remain light during inflation. We show that existing upper bounds on the magnitude of such…
Explicit string models which can realize inflation and low-energy supersymmetry are notoriously difficult to achieve. Given that sequestering requires very specific configurations, supersymmetric particles are in general expected to be very…
A survey of solutions to the cosmological moduli problem in string theory. The only extant proposal which may work is Intermediate Scale Inflation as proposed by Randall and Thomas. Supersymmetry preserving dynamics which could give large…
In recent years it has been realised that pre-BBN decays of moduli can be a significant source of dark matter production, giving a `non-thermal WIMP miracle' and substantially reduced fine-tuning in cosmological axion physics. We study…
The appearance of scalar/moduli fields in the early universe, as motivated by string theory, naturally leads to non-thermal "moduli cosmology". Such cosmology provides a consistent framework where the generation of radiation, baryons, and…
The identification of dark matter in our particle physics model is still a very open question. Here we will argue that axinos can be successful dark matter candidates in models with supersymmetry and the axion solution of the strong CP…
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…
It is tempting to inflate along one of the many flat directions that arise in supersymmetric theories. The required flatness of the potential to obtain sufficient inflation and to not overproduce density fluctuations occurs naturally.…
There is increasing evidence that conventional cold dark matter (CDM) models lead to conflicts between observations and numerical simulations of dark matter halos on sub-galactic scales. Spergel and Steinhardt showed that if the CDM is…
We propose heavy axions as a natural superheavy dark matter candidate in string theory, with the relic density of dark matter originating in quantum fluctuations during cosmic inflation. String Theory is well known for the possibility of…
We examine the issue of dark radiation (DR) from string moduli decay into axion-like particles (ALPs). In KKLT-type models of moduli stabilization, the axionlike phases of moduli fields are expected to decouple whilst in LVS-type moduli…
A brief discussion is presented assessing the achievements and challenges of string phenomenology: the subfield dedicated to study the potential for string theory to make contact with particle physics and cosmology. Building from the well…
The string/$M$ theory Axiverse -- a plethora of very light Axion Like Particles (ALPs) with a vast range of masses -- is arguably a generic prediction of string/$M$ theory. String/$M$ theory also tends to predict that the early Universe is…