Related papers: New Perspectives on Axion Misalignment Mechanism
The Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry does not need to be exact, and even a tiny source of PQ breaking not aligned with the QCD anomaly might have significant phenomenological implications. In this study, we examine the effects of a general class…
The misalignment mechanism for axion production depends on the temperature-dependent axion mass. The latter has recently been determined within the interacting instanton liquid model (IILM), and provides for the first time a well-motivated…
We show that dark matter can be accounted for by an axion that solves the strong CP problem, but is much lighter than usual due to a $Z_\mathcal{N}$ symmetry. The whole mass range from the canonical QCD axion down to the ultra-light regime…
In this work we introduce an effective model of $f(R)$ gravity containing a non-minimal coupling to the axion scalar field. The axion field is described by the misalignment model, in which the primordial $U(1)$ Peccei-Quinn symmetry is…
Motivated by their potential role as dark matter, we study the cosmological evolution of light scalar and vector fields non-minimally coupled to gravity. Our focus is on a situation where the dominant contribution to the energy density…
We show that both the baryon asymmetry of the universe and dark matter (DM) can be accounted for by the dynamics of a single axion-like field. In this scenario, the observed baryon asymmetry is produced through spontaneous…
In this master's thesis we study the production of axion dark matter through the so-called misalignment mechanism by considering that during that time, the universe was dominated by a new kind of fluid, different than radiation. We perform…
We propose a mechanism called axiogenesis where the cosmological excess of baryons over antibaryons is generated from the rotation of the QCD axion. The Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry may be explicitly broken in the early universe, inducing the…
Based on considerations of quantum gravity, global symmetries which lead to axions as pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons after low scale symmetry breaking cannot be exact at the Planck scale. Here, we show that Planck-suppressed terms which…
The QCD axion addresses the strong CP problem and dark matter via the misalignment mechanism, typically requiring a decay constant $f_a\sim \mathcal{O}(10^{12}$ GeV), unless the initial misalignment angle ($\theta_i$) is fine-tuned. This…
If inflation occurs after the breaking of Peccei-Quinn symmetry then large values of the breaking scale $F$, which are forbidden in conventional axion cosmology, are permitted, provided that we inhabit a region of the Multiverse where the…
If the symmetry breaking leading to the origin of the axion dark matter field occurs after the end of inflation and is never restored, then overdensities in the axion field collapse to form dense objects known in the literature as axion…
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…
We study the time evolution of the quantum fluctuations of the axion field for both the QCD axion as well as axions arising in the context of supergravity and string theories. We explicitly keep track not only of the coherently oscillating…
In this letter, we quantify the challenge of explaining the baryon asymmetry using initial conditions in a universe that undergoes inflation. Contrary to lore, we find that such an explanation is possible if net $B-L$ number is stored in a…
For the minimal QCD axion model it is generally believed that overproduction of dark matter constrains the axion mass to be above a certain threshold, or at least that the initial misalignment angle must be tuned if the mass is below that…
Several theoretical motivations point to ultralight QCD axions with large decay constants $f_a \simeq \mathcal{O}(10^{16}-10^{17})$ GeV, to which experimental proposals are dedicated. This regime is known to face the problem of…
We present aspects of a model which attempts to unify the creation of cold dark matter, a CP-violating baryon asymmetry, and also a small, residual vacuum energy density, in the early universe. The model contains a primary scalar (inflaton)…
We show that supersymmetric axion models breaking the PQ symmetry by the interplay of non-renormalizable supersymmetric terms and soft supersymmetry breaking terms provide a natural framework not only for generating the axion scale from…
We study the stochastic axion dark matter scenario in the axion landscape, where one of the axions is light and stable and therefore explains dark matter. If the axion mass at the potential is a typical value of the curvature along the…