Related papers: On the high-scale instanton interference effect: a…
We study some of the novel effects that arise when the QCD axion is placed in the ``bulk'' of large extra spacetime dimensions. First, we find that the mass of the axion can become independent of the energy scale associated with the…
The axion solution to the strong CP problem is delicately sensitive to Peccei-Quinn breaking contributions that are misaligned with respect to QCD instantons. Heavy QCD axion models are appealing because they avoid this so-called "quality…
We identify a new production channel for QCD axions in supernova environments that contributes to axion emissivity for all models solving the strong CP problem. This channel arises at tree-level from a shift-symmetry-breaking operator…
To elucidate the role played by instantons in chiral symmetry breaking, we explore their properties in full QCD, around the critical temperature. We study in particular spatial correlations between low-lying Dirac eigenmodes and instantons.…
We implement the scenario of early relaxation of the axion via a high scale confinement within $SU(5)$ grand unified theory and study an epoch of strong QCD in inflationary cosmology. We consider scenarios in which, during inflation, the…
We show that the quark (not nucleon) based chiral linear $\sigma$ model which receives strong support as a mean field theory for the strong interactions can actually be made asymptotically free by coupling to gluons. It has the further…
The domain wall problem and the isocurvature problem restrict possible combinations of axion models and inflation models. In this paper, we considered a new mechanism which solves those problems by dynamics of multiple scalar fields…
We show that the de Sitter quantum breaking bound when applied to QCD exposes the necessity of the axion solution to the strong CP problem. The Peccei-Quinn mechanism emerges as a consistency requirement independent of the naturalness…
Chiral quark model with a broken-U(3) flavor symmetry can be interpreted as the effective theory of the instanton-dominated non-perturbative QCD. This naturally suggests the possibility of a negative singlet/octet coupling ratio, which has…
So far the null results from axion searches have enforced a huge hierarchy between the Peccei-Quinn and electroweak symmetry breaking scales. Then the inevitable Higgs portal poses a large fine tuning on the standard model Higgs scalar. Now…
We show that spontaneous breaking of discrete or continuous symmetries does not necessarily imply either symmetry restoration or the thermal production of defects at high temperature (at least up to $T \sim M_{Planck}$). This may imply that…
We study the phenomenology of the 'companion-axion model' consisting of two coupled QCD axions. The second axion is required to rescue the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong-CP problem from the effects of colored gravitational instantons.…
The axion is a hypothetical elementary particle postulated by the Peccei-Quinn theory to resolve the strong CP problem in QCD. If axions exist and have low mass, they are a candidate for dark matter as well. So far our knowledge of the…
An axion cosmic string is known to be a chiral superconductor when the axion couples to an electrically charged fermion. After the QCD phase transition, a QCD axion string is attached by $N$ domain walls. We would like to elucidate the fate…
We present a field theoretical model which allows for domain walls that do not get stuck on impurities. For this purpose, we consider a generalized chiral magnet domain wall action with an impurity which couples both to a potential term as…
This is the last in a series of papers on the topological susceptibility in the interacting instanton liquid model (IILM). We will derive improved finite temperature interactions to study the thermodynamic limit of grand canonical Monte…
An approach to QCD vacuum as a medium describable in terms of statistical ensemble of almost everywhere homogeneous Abelian (anti-)self-dual gluon fields is reviewed. These fields play the role of the confining medium for color charged…
We attempt to identify a phenomenologically viable solution to the strong $CP$ problem in which the axion is composed entirely out of Standard Model fermion species. The axion consists predominantly of the $\eta'$ meson with a minuscule…
Instantons generate strong non-perturbative interactions between quarks. In the vacuum, these interactions lead to chiral symmetry breaking and generate constituent quark masses on the order of 300-400 MeV. The observation that the same…
We study the consequences of the existence and breaking of a Peccei--Quinn symmetry within the context of a dynamical model of electroweak symmetry breaking based on broken gauged flavour symmetries. We perform an estimate of the axion mass…