Related papers: QCD Axion Dark Matter from a Late Time Phase Trans…
We give a brief review of modern theoretical understanding of the physics of QCD at finite temperature and density. We concentrate in particular on the properties of hadron gas at relatively small temperatures and discuss in details the…
We find that QCD can create the cosmological matter abundance via out-of-equilibrium processes during the QCD phase transition, that is what we call the QCD preheating, where the dynamic transition of the QCD vacuum characterized by the…
In supersymmetric theories, the Peccei-Quinn symmetry has a complex extension as a symmetry of the superpotential, so that the scalar potential always has an almost flat direction, the dilaton. We discuss how coherent oscillation of the…
We extend our previous study [Phys. Lett. B643 (2006) 46] of the cross-over temperatures (T_c) of QCD. We improve our zero temperature analysis by using physical quark masses and finer lattices. In addition to the kaon decay constant used…
We present a new mechanism for the primordial black hole (PBH) production within the QCD axion framework. We take the case where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaks during inflation, resulting in a $N_{\rm DW}=1$ string-wall network that…
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…
Recently it has been proposed that dark matter axions from the galactic halo can produce a small Shapiro step-like signal in Josephson junctions whose Josephson frequency resonates with the axion mass [C. Beck, PRL 111, 231801 (2013)]. Here…
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…
We review a class of models which generalize the traditional Peccei-Quinn (PQ) axion solution by a St\"uckelberg pseudoscalar. Such axion models represent a significant variant with respect to earlier scenarios where axion fields were…
We argue that hadron multiplicities in central high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions are established very close to the phase boundary between hadronic and quark matter. In the hadronic picture this can be described by multi-particle…
In order to solve the strong CP problem, we study the possibility that the Peccei--Quinn symmetry is broken {\it below}\/ the QCD scale. We find that a QCD axion can be above GeV, and may be among the observed $\eta$ resonances. It is…
We find that the adiabatic fluctuations produced in the primordial plasma by cosmological inflation resonantly excite the axion field during the QCD phase transition by pumping axions from low momentum modes to modes with momentum up to of…
The axion is a hypothetical low-mass boson predicted by the Peccei-Quinn mechanism solving the strong CP problem. It is naturally also a cold dark matter candidate if its mass is below $\sim$\,1\,meV, thus simultaneously solving two major…
The BICEP2 experiment determined the Hubble parameter during inflation to be about $10^{14}$ GeV. Such high inflation scale is in tension with the QCD axion dark matter if the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry remains broken during and after…
I give a brief overview of our current understanding of the QCD phase diagram at finite temperature and baryon density. I emphasize phase transitions which occur at high density and low temperature (relative to the QCD scale), such as…
The QCD axion remains experimentally viable in the mass range of O(10 MeV) if (i) it couples predominantly to the first generation of SM fermions; (ii) it decays to $e^+ e^-$ with a short lifetime $\tau_a\lesssim 10^{-13}\,$s; and (iii) it…
We consider thermal QCD in the large N_C limit, mainly in 1+1 dimensions. The gauge coupling is only taken into account to minimal order, by projection onto colour singlets. An expression for the free energy, exact as N_C goes to infinity,…
In compact stellar environments, the stability of dense QCD matter requires the simultaneous fulfillment of charge neutrality and beta equilibrium. In this work, we study how temperature and finite chemical potential affect QCD topology and…
We present a novel candidate for cold dark matter consisting of condensed Cooper pairs in a theory of interacting fermions with broken chiral symmetry. Establishing the thermal history from the early radiation era to the present, the…
Domain walls can form after breakdown of a discrete symmetry induced by first-order phase transition, we study the heavy dark matter produced around the temperature of the phase transition that yields the breakdown of a $\mathbb{Z}_{3}$…