Related papers: Probing axion dark matter with 21cm fluctuations f…
We discuss the possible sources of dark matter axions in the early universe. In the standard thermal scenario, an axion string network forms at the Peccei-Quinn phase transition $T\sim \fa$ and then radiatively decays into a cosmological…
The default assumption of early universe cosmology is that the postinflationary universe was radiation dominated until it was about 47000 years old. Direct evidence for the radiation dominated epoch extends back until nucleosynthesis, which…
A kinetic mixing between the axion and the inflaton allows for a production of axion dark matter even if the inflationary Hubble scale is smaller than the zero-temperature axion mass. We analyze the axion dynamics in this recently…
The current cosmological constraints on a dark matter axion are reviewed. We describe the basic mechanisms by which axions are created in the early universe, both in the standard thermal scenario in which axion strings form and in…
We revisit the isocurvature density perturbations induced by quantum fluctuations of the axion field by extending a recently developed analytic method and approximations to a time-dependent scalar potential, which enables us to follow the…
Cosmological evolution of axion field in the early universe might be significantly affected by a thermal friction induced by the axion coupling to thermalized hidden sector. We examine the effects of such a thermal friction on axion dark…
Before reionization, the intergalactic medium (IGM) may have been sufficiently cold for low-mass "minihalos" to condense out of the gas and subsequently affect reionization. Previous work has shown that minihalos generate reasonably large…
Axionic dark matter can form miniclusters and minicluster halos from inhomogenuities in the early Universe. If MCHs are sufficiently massive, their existence can be revealed by small-scale gravitational tidal perturbation to halo-like…
Axion fluctuations generated during inflation lead to isocurvature and non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Following a previous analysis for the model independent string axion we consider the…
The QCD axion and axion-like particles, as leading dark matter candidates, can also have interesting implications for dark matter substructures if the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken after inflation. In such a scenario, axion perturbations…
Light scalar and pseudoscalar particles are compelling dark matter candidates, with a vast running experimental program to discover them. Previous studies have shown that these light fields can generate sizable isocurvature perturbations in…
The axion, as a leading dark matter candidate, is the target of many ongoing and proposed experimental searches based on its coupling to photons. Ultralight axions that couple to photons can also cause polarization rotation of light, which…
Fuzzy dark matter of ultra-light axions has gained attention, largely in light of the galactic scale problems associated with cold dark matter. But the large de Broglie wavelength, believed to possibly alleviate these problems, also leads…
The growth of adiabatic density perturbations during an era of early matter domination induces $\mathcal{O}(1)$ fluctuations in pre-inflationary QCD axion dark matter across a broad, string-theory-motivated parameter space. Remarkably, at…
We study the impact of thermal inflation on the formation of cosmological structures and present astrophysical observables which can be used to constrain and possibly probe the thermal inflation scenario. These are dark matter halo…
We assume axion-like particles (ALPs) to provide the full dark matter abundance and derive various lower bounds on the ALP mass. We contrast the post- and pre-inflationary symmetry breaking cases and present allowed regions in the plane of…
The axion is a light pseudoscalar particle which suppresses CP-violating effects in strong interactions and also happens to be an excellent dark matter candidate. Axions constituting the dark matter halo of our galaxy may be detected by…
If QCD axion dark matter formed post-inflation, axion miniclusters emerged from isocurvature fluctuations and later merged hierarchically into minihalos. These minihalos, potentially disrupted by stellar encounters in the Milky Way, affect…
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…
The axion is one of the best motivated candidates for particle dark matter. We study and update the constraints imposed by the recent CMB and LSS experiments on the mass of axions produced by the misalignment mechanism, as a function of…