Related papers: Instanton Expansions and Phase Transitions
We consider an axionic dark matter model with a modified periodic potential for the pseudoscalar field in the framework of the axionic extension of the Einstein-aether theory. The modified potential is assumed to be equipped by the guiding…
Instantons at finite temperature consist of dyons, with their masses depending on the asymptotic Polyakov loop. It is shown that the suppression of heavy dyons can explain qualitatively the behavior of the periodic and antiperiodic chiral…
Small size QCD instantons may spoil the axion solution to the strong CP problem if QCD is not asymptotically free at high energy scales. We examine this issue in supersymmetric models using a manifestly supersymmetric scheme to compute the…
In the presence of an anomalous CP phase in a U(1) gauge theory, a monopole becomes a dyon via the Witten effect. When the anomalous CP phase is promoted to a dynamical field, the axion, the electric charge of the dyon changes according to…
Instantons play a crucial role in understanding non-perturbative dynamics in quantum field theories, including those with spontaneously broken gauge symmetries. In the broken phase, finite-size instanton-like configurations are no longer…
The early universe grants access to energy scales far beyond those achievable in terrestrial experiments and allows unstable Standard Model particles to play an active dynamical role. In this contribution, we focus on recent studies aimed…
We consider the de Sitter cosmology deformed by the presence of a thermal bath of radiation and/or time-dependent moduli fields. Depending on the parameters, either a first or second order phase transition can occur. In the first case, an…
String theories suggest the existence of a plethora of axion-like fields with masses spread over a huge number of decades. Here we show that these ideas lend themselves to a model of quintessence with no super-Planckian field excursions and…
We calculate a new contribution to the axion mass that arises from gluons propagating in a 5th dimension at high energies. By uplifting the 4D instanton solution to five dimensions, the positive frequency modes of the Kaluza-Klein states…
We investigate the instanton dynamics of asymptotically safe and free quantum field theories featuring respectively controllable ultraviolet and infrared fixed points. We start by briefly reviewing the salient points about the instanton…
Theories with several hundred axion fields have enormous numbers of distinct meta-stable minima. A small fraction of these local minima have vacuum energy compatible with current measurements of dark energy. The potential also contains…
It is shown that periodic instanton solutions may have bifurcations which qualitatively change the behaviour of the finite temperature transition rate. These bifurcations are studied numerically in a quantum mechanical model and in the…
Instanton calculations are demonstrated from a viewpoint of twisted topological field theory. Various properties become manifest such that perturbative corrections are terminated at one-loop, and norm cancellations occur between bosonic and…
The highly populated, low-energy excitations of a scalar field of mass $m_a\sim 10^{-22}\,\textrm{eV}$ can represent the full dark matter content of the universe and alleviate some tensions in the standard cosmological scenario on…
The axionic weak gravity conjecture predicts the existence of instantons whose actions are less than their charges in appropriate units. We show that the conjecture is satisfied for the axion-dilaton-gravity system if we assume duality…
In this article we study a modification of axion physics in which the dual axion acquires a mass. This mass explicitly breaks the shift symmetry of the dual axion. The potential breaking of this shift symmetry poses a dual axion quality…
We present a connection between two known solutions to the strong-CP problem: the standard introduction of axions and the extra-dimensional one, relying on topological arguments. Using an equivalent lower-dimensional set-up with a warped…
The axion Weak Gravity Conjecture implies that when parametrically increasing the axion decay constants, instanton corrections become increasingly important. We provide strong evidence for the validity of this conjecture by studying the…
The new phase of a gauge theory in which the instantons are ``polarized'', i.e. have the preferred orientation is discussed. A class of gauge theories with the specific condensates of the scalar fields is considered. In these models there…
Some models allowing explicit calculation of periodic instantons and evaluation of their action are studied with regard to transitions from classical to quantum behaviour as the temperature is lowered and tunneling sets in. It is shown that…