Related papers: Opening up the QCD axion window
By coupling axions strongly to a hidden sector, the energy density in coherent axions may be converted to radiative degrees of freedom, alleviating the ``axion energy crisis''. The strong coupling is achieved by mixing the axion and some…
Axion scenarios in which the spontaneous breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry takes place before or during inflation, and in which axion dark matter arises from the misalignment mechanism, can be constrained by Cosmic Microwave Background…
It is shown that gauge field configurations with higher topological charge modify the structure of the QCD vacuum, which is reflected in its dependence on the CP-violating topological phase $\theta$. To explore this, topological…
A light hidden photon or axion-like particle is a good dark matter candidate and they are often associated with the spontaneous breaking of dark global or gauged U(1) symmetry. We consider the dark Higgs dynamics around the phase transition…
It is pointed out that there exist a few problems to be overcome toward an observable sub-eV QCD axion in superstring compactification. We give a general expression for the axion decay constant. For a large domain wall number $N_{DW}$, the…
In the Standard Model a Dark Matter candidate is missing, but it is relatively simple to enlarge the model including one or more suitable particles. We consider in this paper one such extension, inspired by simplicity and by the goal to…
We study minimal versions of Higgs inflation in the presence of a massless QCD axion. While the inflationary energy scale of the metric variant is too high to accommodate isocurvature bounds, it was argued that Palatini Higgs inflation…
The QCD axion needs not be an exact pseudoscalar for solving the strong CP problem. Its imperfectness can play a profound role cosmologically. We propose effective operators, where the Peccei-Quinn field linearly couples to Standard Model…
We consider the generic scenario of dark energy which arises through the latent heat of a hidden sector first order cosmological phase transition. This field could account for the extra radiation degree of freedom suggested by the CMB. We…
We present a model where the QCD axion is at the TeV scale and visible at a collider via its decays. Conformal dynamics and strong CP considerations account for the axion coupling strongly enough to the standard model to be produced as well…
We revisit the cosmological aspects of axion models. In the high-scale inflation scenario, the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is likely to be restored during/after inflation. If the curvature of the PQ scalar potential at the origin is smaller…
Hidden monopole is a plausible dark matter candidate due to its stability, but its direct experimental search is extremely difficult due to feeble interactions with the standard model particles in the minimal form. Then, we introduce an…
The Peccei-Quinn mechanism presents a neat solution to the strong CP problem. As a by-product, it provides an ideal dark matter candidate, "the axion", albeit with a tiny mass. Axions therefore can act as dark radiation if excited with…
The QCD axion has been postulated to exist because it solves the strong CP problem. Furthermore, if it exists axions should be created in the early Universe and could account for all the observed dark matter. In particular, axion masses of…
We discuss the appearance at the QCD phase transition, and the subsequent decay, of axion walls bounded by strings in N=1 axion models. We argue on intuitive grounds that the main decay mechanism is into barely relativistic axions. We…
The QCD axion serves as a well-motivated dark matter candidate and the misalignment mechanism is known to reproduce the observed abundance with a decay constant $f_a \simeq \mathcal{O}(10^{12})$ GeV for a misalignment angle $\theta_{\rm…
We consider the possibility of an enlarged QCD color group, SU(3+$N^\prime$) spontaneously broken to SU(3)$_c\times$SU($N^\prime$) with extra vector-like quarks transforming in the fundamental representation. When the heavy quarks are…
We propose two novel solutions to the domain wall problem of the QCD axion by introducing a massless or light axion that also couples to gluons. The first solution applies when the new axion forms strings after inflation. Due to its mixing…
The subjects of this thesis are the invisible axion and the more general family of axion-like particles. The invisible axion is a hypothetical elementary particle and a cold dark matter candidate. I present an improved computation of the…
We consider the dimming of photons from high redshift type 1a supernovae by mixing with a pseudoscalar axion field in the intergalactic medium. We model the electron density using a lognormal probability distribution and assume frozen in…