Related papers: The QCD axion, precisely
Axions are one of the most attractive dark matter candidates. The evolution of their number density in the early universe can be determined by calculating the topological susceptibility $\chi(T)$ of QCD as a function of the temperature.…
The temperature dependence of the topological susceptibility in QCD, chi_t, essentially determines the abundance of the QCD axion in the Universe, and is commonly estimated, based on the instanton picture, to be a certain negative power of…
We present a mechanism wherein the QCD axion coupling to nucleons, photons, or electrons, can be enhanced selectively without increasing the axion mass. We focus in particular on the axion-nucleon couplings, that are generally considered to…
We investigate the topological properties of $N_f = 2+1$ QCD with physical quark masses, both at zero and finite temperature. We adopt stout improved staggered fermions and explore a range of lattice spacings $a \sim 0.05 - 0.12$ fm. At…
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interactions within the Standard Model of particle physics, which explains more than 99% of the mass of the visible Universe. However, there is evidence that a substantial portion of…
In this work we compute the axion mass and, from this (exploiting a well-known relation), we also derive an expression for the QCD topological susceptibility in the finite-temperature case, both below and above the chiral phase transition…
We calculate the nucleon axial form factor up to the leading one-loop order in a covariant chiral effective field theory with the $\Delta(1232)$ resonance as an explicit degree of freedom. We fit the axial form factor to the latest lattice…
We report on recent work about the study of quark mass dependence of nucleon magnetic moments and axial-vector coupling constant. We examine the feasibility of chiral effective field theory methods for the extrapolation of lattice QCD data…
If the QCD axion is a significant component of dark matter, and if the universe was once hotter than a few hundred MeV, the axion relic abundance depends on the function $\chi(T)$, the temperature-dependent topological susceptibility.…
We derive the axion-nucleon interaction Lagrangian in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory up to next-to-next-to-leading order. The effective axion-nucleon coupling is calculated to a few percent accuracy.
We improve the precision of the topological susceptibility of QCD, and therefore of the QCD axion mass, by including $O(\alpha_{\rm em})$ and NNLO corrections in the chiral expansion, which amount to 0.65(21)% and -0.71(29)% respectively.…
We recently obtained an estimate of the axion mass based on the hypothesis that axions make up most of the dark matter in the universe. A key ingredient for this calculation was the temperature-dependence of the topological susceptibility…
The temperature ($T$) dependence of the axion mass is predicted for $T$'s up to $\sim 2.3 \times$ the chiral restoration temperature of QCD. The axion is related to the $U_A(1)$ anomaly. The squared axion mass $m_a(T)^2$ is, modulo the…
QCD topological susceptibility at high temperature, $\chi_t(T)$, provides an important input for the estimate of the axion abundance in the present Universe. While the model independent determination of $\chi_t(T)$ should be possible from…
Considerable theoretical efforts have gone into expanding the reach of the QCD axion beyond its canonical mass--decay-constant relation. The $Z_\mathcal{N}$ QCD axion model reduces the QCD axion mass naturally, by invoking a discrete…
The properties of the QCD axion are strictly related to the dependence of strong interactions on the topological parameter theta. We present a determination of the topological properties of QCD for temperatures up to around 600 MeV,…
Highlights from recent computations in lattice QCD involving baryons are presented. Calculations of the proton mass and spin decompositions are discussed, a percent level determination of the nucleon axial coupling is described, and…
Removal of the quenched approximation in the mechanism which produced an analytic estimate of quark-binding potentials, along with a reasonable conjecture of the color structure of the nucleon formed by such a binding potential, is shown to…
We compute the QCD axion contribution to the energy density of dark radiation, parameterized by $\Delta N_{\rm eff}$, by solving Boltzmann equations for the momentum distribution functions including the effects of quantum statistics for all…
First I will review the QCD theta problem and the Peccei-Quinn solution, with its new particle, the axion. I will review the possibility of the axion as dark matter. If PQ symmetry was restored at some point in the hot early Universe, it…