Related papers: An even lighter QCD axion
Cosmology and particle physics are closer today than ever before, with several searches underway at the interface between cosmology, particle physics, and field theory. The mystery of dark matter (DM) is one of the greatest common unsolved…
Finite density corrections to the lighter-than-QCD axion can invert the effective axion potential, sourcing a non-trivial axion field inside dense objects. We perform the first numerical study of the complete dynamics of the…
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…
The axion provides a compelling solution to the strong CP problem as well as a candidate for the dark matter of the universe. However, the axion solution relies on the spontaneous breaking of a global $U(1)_{PQ}$ symmetry, which is also…
Axions are well-motivated dark matter candidates with simple cosmological production mechanisms. They were originally introduced to solve the strong CP problem, but also arise in a wide range of extensions to the Standard Model. This…
We review the physics case for very weakly coupled ultralight particles beyond the Standard Model, in particular for axions and axion-like particles (ALPs): (i) the axionic solution of the strong CP problem and its embedding in well…
We argue that coherent oscillations of the axion field excited by the misalignment mechanism and non-thermal leptogenesis by the saxion decay can naturally explain the observed abundance of dark matter and baryon asymmetry, thus providing a…
We present a new mechanism to deplete the energy density of the QCD axion, making decay constants as high as $f_a \simeq 10^{17}\,\rm{GeV}$ viable for generic initial conditions. In our setup, the axion couples to a massless dark photon…
An exact duality between axion with arbitrary potential and antisymmetric form-field has been derived some time ago. Using this duality, the axion solution to strong-CP problem has been formulated as a gauge invariant theory of forms. In…
We review the physics potential of a next generation search for solar axions: the International Axion Observatory (IAXO). Endowed with a sensitivity to discover axion-like particles (ALPs) with a coupling to photons as small as…
The $U(1)$ global symmetry to solve the strong $CP$ problem could be the remnant of multi-$U(1)$ symmetries from QCD and hidden strong dynamics. Both Peccei-Quinn $U(1)$ and dynamical $U(1)$ are described uniformly, based on which we…
The addition of the QCD axion to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) not only solves the strong CP problem but also modifies the dark sector with new dark matter candidates. While SUSY axion phenomenology is usually restricted…
We demonstrate that the observed cosmological excess of matter over antimatter may originate from a heavy QCD axion that solves the strong CP problem but has a mass much larger than that given by the Standard Model QCD strong dynamics. We…
The axion is a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. It appears after the spontaneous breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry, which was proposed to solve the strong-CP problem. Other pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons, postulated in some extensions of…
In the first part of the thesis, we revisit the Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnisky axion model in light of the recent Higgs LHC results and electroweak precision data. This model is an extension of the two-Higgs-doublet model incorporating a…
Recent analyses of WMAP9 data show that dark radiation-- parametrized by the apparent number of additional neutrinos \Delta N_{eff} contributing to the cosmic expansion-- is consistent with the Standard Model and bounded from above by about…
A QCD axion with a decay constant below $ 10 ^{ 11} ~{\rm GeV} $ is a strongly-motivated extension to the Standard Model, though its relic abundance from the misalignment mechanism or decay of cosmic defects is insufficient to explain the…
The recent observations imply that there is an extra relativistic degree of freedom coined dark radiation. We argue that the QCD axion is a plausible candidate for the dark radiation, not only because of its extremely small mass, but also…
Inspired by the possibility of high-scale supersymmetry breaking in the string landscape where the cosmological constant problem and the gauge hierarchy problem can be solved while the strong CP problem is still a challenge for naturalness,…
The axion solution to the strong CP problem makes use of a global Peccei-Quinn U(1) symmetry which is susceptible to violations from quantum gravitational effects. We show how discrete gauge symmetries can protect the axion from such…