Related papers: Axion Misalignment Driven to the Hilltop
Since the current evidence of its existence is revealed only through its gravitational influence, the way dark matter couples to gravity must be then of primary importance. Here, unlike the standard model sector which is typically coupled…
We consider axions lighter than what their QCD couplings might otherwise suggest. Starting with a $\mathbb{Z}_N$-axion, we introduce a small explicit $\mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetry-breaking coupling between the Standard Model Higgs boson and a…
Axio-dilaton cosmology provides a minimal benchmark model for both Dark Matter (DM) and Dark Energy (DE) that is well motivated by fundamental physics. The axion and dilaton arise as pseudo-Goldstone modes of symmetries that predict…
The QCD axion is a well-motivated addition to the standard model to solve the strong $C\!P$ problem. If the axion acquires mass dominantly from a hidden sector, it can be as heavy as $O(1)$ GeV, and the decay constant can be as low as…
The QCD axion was originally predicted as a dynamical solution to the strong CP problem. Axion like particles (ALPs) are also a generic prediction of many high energy physics models including string theory. Theoretical models for axions are…
The recent detection of B-modes by BICEP2 has non-trivial implications for axion dark matter implied by combining the tensor interpretation with isocurvature constraints from Planck. In this paper the measurement is taken as fact, and its…
Many existing and proposed experiments targeting QCD axion dark matter (DM) can also search for a broad class of axion-like particles (ALPs). We analyze the experimental sensitivities to electromagnetically-coupled ALP DM in different…
We introduce a novel mechanism where the kinetic energy of a rotating axion can be dissipated by the interactions with dark magnetic monopoles. This mechanism leads to a framework where the QCD axion and dark monopoles account for the dark…
Axions are well-motivated dark matter candidates with simple cosmological production mechanisms. They were originally introduced to solve the strong CP problem, but also arise in a wide range of extensions to the Standard Model. This…
Recently, a novel mechanism to address the hierarchy problem has been proposed \cite{Graham:2015cka}, where the hierarchy between weak scale physics and any putative `cutoff' $M$ is translated into a parametrically large field excursion for…
We present global fits of cosmologically stable axion-like particle and QCD axion models in the mass range 0.1 neV to 10 eV. We focus on the case where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken before the end of inflation, such that the initial…
The QCD axion remains one of the most compelling solutions to the strong CP problem. Meanwhile, the type-I seesaw mechanism offers an elegant explanation for the lightness of the observed neutrino masses; however, its extremely heavy…
We present a novel realization of axion kinetic misalignment, triggered by a Hubble-induced phase transition during a post-inflationary stiff (kination) era. A negative Ricci scalar flips the sign of a non-minimally coupled mass term for a…
We study for what specific values of the theoretical parameters the axion can form the totality of cold dark matter. We examine the allowed axion parameter region in the light of recent data collected by the WMAP5 mission plus baryon…
ATLAS and CMS observe deviations from the expected background in the diphoton invariant mass searches of new resonances around 750 GeV. We show that a simple realization in terms of a new pseudoscalar state can accommodate the observations.…
One intriguing BSM particle is the QCD axion, which could simultaneously provide a solution to the Strong CP problem and account for some, if not all, of the dark matter density in the universe. This particle is a pNGB of the conjectured…
We propose a consistent framework with the $U(1)$ Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry for obtaining the initial condition for axion kinetic misalignment from inflation. We introduce a PQ complex scalar field and an extra Higgs doublet, which are…
We present a complete model of a dark QCD sector with light dark pions, broadly motivated by hidden naturalness arguments. The dark quarks couple to the Standard Model via irrelevant $Z$- and Higgs-portal operators, which encode the…
We investigate the level-crossing phenomenon in two-axion systems, where the mass eigenvalues intersect as the mass of one axion increases with the cooling of the universe. This phenomenon can significantly alter the abundance of axions in…
We study cosmological effects of explicit Peccei-Quinn breaking on the QCD axion dark matter. We find that the axion abundance decreases or increases significantly depending on the initial position, even for a tiny Peccei-Quinn breaking…