Related papers: Transplanckian axions !?
Axion is a light pseudoscalar particle of much interest for physics of elementary particles and for astrophysics. We review the recently obtained constraints on axion to nucleon coupling constants following from different experiments on…
The QCD axion solving the strong CP problem may originate from antisymmetric tensor gauge fields in compactified string theory, with a decay constant around the GUT scale. Such possibility appears to be ruled out now by the detection of…
We propose a unified single-field description of the galactic Dark Matter and various uniform scalar fields for the inflation and cosmological constant. The two types of effects could originate from a fluid of both spatially and temporally…
The starting point of this work is the original Einstein action, sometimes called the Gamma squared action. Continuing from our previous results, we study various modified theories of gravity following the Palatini approach. The metric and…
Axions are hypothetical pseudoscalar particles introduced initially as a solution to the Strong CP problem in Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), and they also arise naturally in a broad class of low-energy compactifications of string theory.…
We study spatial variations of the fine-structure constant in the presence of static straight cosmic strings in the weak-field approximation in Einstein gravity. We work in the context of a generic Bekenstein-type model and consider a gauge…
Axions play a central role in many realizations of large field models of inflation and in recent alternative mechanisms for generating primordial tensor modes in small field models. If these axions couple to gauge fields, the coupling…
In this paper, we examine the viability of inflation models with a spectator axion field coupled to both gravitational and SU(2) gauge fields via Chern-Simons couplings. Requiring phenomenological success of the axion-SU(2) sector…
We study a scenario allowing a solution of the strong charge parity problem via the Peccei-Quinn mechanism, implemented in gravity with torsion. In this framework there appears a torsion-related pseudoscalar field known as Kalb-Ramond…
Non-perturbative effects of instanton-like solutions are studied within the framework of supergravity theories with field-dependent gauge functions. Fermionic zero modes are constructed and some typical correlation functions are evaluated.…
Axions, periodic scalar fields coupled to gauge fields through the instanton density, have a rich variety of higher-form global symmetries. These include a two-form global symmetry, which measures the charge of axion strings. As we review,…
Discrete symmetries allowed in string compactification are the mother of all global symmetries which are broken at some level. We discuss the resulting pseudo-Goldstone bosons, in particular the QCD axion and a temporary cosmological…
Inflation in the framework of Einstein-Cartan theory is revisited. Einstein-Cartan theory is a natural extension of the General Relativity, with non-vanishing torsion. The connection on Riemann-Cartan spacetime is only compatible with the…
The instability of (quasi) de Sitter spacetime from quantum gravitational effects has been discussed in many works. Especially, the gravitational backreaction from quantum energy momentum tensor is crucial for understanding the low-energy…
We investigate how coherent oscillations backreact on the evolution of the condensate wave function of ultra-light axions in the non-relativistic regime appropriate to cosmic structure formation. The coherent oscillations induce higher…
The positive energy theorem precludes the possibility of Minkowski flat space decaying by any mechanism. In certain circumstances, however, large quantum fluctuations of the gravitational field could arise---not only at the Planck scale,…
The stability of de Sitter metric in spacetimes where inflaton fields are non-minimally coupled to propagating torsion is investigated. It is shown that the de Sitter background metric is unstable against small perturbations. Axionic…
In this talk, I review briefly a scenario for the evolution of a string-inspired cosmological model, in which condensates of primordial gravitational waves (GW), formed at the very early eras after the Big Bang, are considered responsible…
We discuss a realization of a small field inflation based on string inspired supergravities. In theories accompanying extra dimensions, compactification of them with small radii is required for realistic situations. Since the extra…
In this paper, we study Einstein gravity with a minimally coupled scalar field accompanied with a potential, assuming an O(4) symmetric metric ansatz. We call an Euclidean instanton is to be an oscillating instanton, if there exists a point…