Related papers: Gravity, Superselection Rules and Axions
We formulate quantum field theory in triangulated spacetime using compositional quantum field theory and tensor network methods. We show that gravitational interactions emerge as a low-energy effective phenomenon in this framework. For…
It follows on general grounds that the theta dependence in QCD is more complicated than suggested by the large N_c approach or instanton arguments. Generically, the vacuum energy E_{vac}(\theta) is a multi-valued function of \theta…
Quantum Gravity admits topological excitations of microscopic scale which can manifest themselves as particles --- topological geons. Non-trivial spatial topology also brings into the theory free parameters analogous to the $\theta$-angle…
Composite axion scenarios offer a robust field theoretic justification for the existence of a Peccei-Quinn symmetry of high quality. We present a new class of realizations that are naturally embedded in Grand-Unified Theories, retain…
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.…
One of the major open puzzles in the Standard Model of particle physics is the strong CP problem: although Quantum Chromodynamics allows a CP-violating topological $\theta$-term, experiments constrain its value to be extremely small. The…
Although the axion is the most compelling solution to the strong CP problem, the ad hoc introduced global Peccei-Quinn symmetry suffers from a severe fine-tuning problem known as the quality problem. In this Letter, we show that the…
These lecture notes provide a self-contained, graduate-level introduction to the strong $CP$ problem and QCD axion physics from an effective field theory (EFT) viewpoint. We review the construction of the chiral EFT of QCD yielding a…
We consider the class of effective supergravity theories from the weakly coupled heterotic string in which local supersymmetry is broken by gaugino condensation in a hidden sector, with dilaton stabilization achieved through corrections to…
A central aspect of the cosmological constant problem is to understand why vacuum energy does not gravitate. In order to account for this observation, while allowing for nontrivial dynamics of the quantum vacuum, we motivate a novel…
In this chapter we introduce the $\theta$-dependence and the topological properties of QCD, features of the strongly interacting sector which give rise to the strong CP problem in the more general context of the Standard Model of particle…
In the context of string theory, axions appear to provide the most plausible solution of the strong CP problem. However, as has been known for a long time, in many string-based models, the axion coupling parameter F_a is several orders of…
The strong CP problem is a compelling motivation for physics beyond the Standard Model. The most popular solutions invoke a global Peccei-Quinn symmetry, but are challenged by quantum gravitational corrections which are thought to be…
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) admits a topological $\bar{\theta}$ term that violates charge-parity ($CP$) symmetry, yet experiments indicate that $\bar{\theta}$ is extremely small. To investigate this problem in a controlled setting, we…
The current cosmological bound on the invisible axion scale may be avoided in the class of theories in which the gauge coupling constant is determined through the expectation value of some scalar field (e.g. moduli in supergravity and…
We suggest a solution to the strong CP problem in which there are no axions involved. The superselection rule of the \theta-vacua is dynamically lifted in such a way that an infinite number of vacua are accumulated within the…
We study the Weak Gravity Conjecture in the presence of scalar fields. The Weak Gravity Conjecture is a consistency condition for a theory of quantum gravity asserting that for a U(1) gauge field, there is a particle charged under this…
The QCD axion can successfully solve the strong CP problem under the condition that the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is respected to extremely high standard. We explore a class of gauge theories that accommodate a high-quality axion, known as the…
In this note we show that models of natural inflation based on closed string axions are incompatible with the weak gravity conjecture (WGC). Specifically, we use T-duality in order to map the bounds on the charge-to-mass ratio of particles…
We point out that the swampland conjectures, forbidding the presence of global symmetries and (meta-)stable de Sitter vacua within quantum gravity, pick up a dynamical axion for the electroweak SU(2) gauge theory as a natural candidate for…