Related papers: Strong CP problem and axion dark matter with small…
The physical origin of the strong CP problem in QCD, rooted in the structures of the vacuum of the standard model, is reviewed. The chiral solution to this problem, with its accompanying axion, is explained and various characteristics of…
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…
In theories of axion dark matter with large axion decay constant, temperature variations in the CMB are extremely sensitive to perturbations in the initial axion field, allowing one to place a lower bound on the total amount of inflation.…
Current techniques cannot detect axion dark matter over much of its parameter space, particularly in the theoretically well-motivated region where the axion decay constant f_a lies near the GUT and Planck scales. We suggest a novel…
A QCD axion with a time-dependent decay constant has been known to be able to accommodate high-scale inflation without producing topological defects or too large isocurvature perturbations on CMB scales. We point out that a dynamical decay…
The naturalness problem of PQ symmetry motivates study of the heavy QCD axion, with masses $m_a >$ 1 MeV generated at scales above the QCD scale, and low values of the PQ symmetry breaking scale, $f_a$. We compute the abundance of such…
I propose a new axionic solution to the strong CP problem which involves a hypothetical vector-like quark(s) in a high-colour representation of the conventional QCD. There are two distinct scenarios. If the current mass of the exotic quark…
We study the physics potential of heavy QCD axions at high-energy muon colliders. Unlike typical axion-like particles, heavy QCD axions solve the strong CP problem with phenomenology driven by the anomalous gluon ($aG\widetilde G$)…
In this work, we critically reanalyze the explicit breaking of the Peccei-Quinn global symmetry -- and the corresponding corrections to the QCD axion potential -- induced by gravity. Specifically, we examine the role of gravitational…
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 a new mechanism to relax the initial misalignment angle of the QCD axion and raise the cosmological bound on the axion decay constant. The QCD axion receives a contribution from small UV instantons during inflation, which raises…
We argue that instantons play a crucial role in triggering the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry in the physics of the three light quarks in quantum chromodynamics. However, instantons may also play an essential role in our…
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…
We examine the theoretical possibility for the heavy QCD axion to induce slow-roll inflation while solving the strong CP problem through the Peccei-Quinn mechanism. If the cancellation between contributions from a small-size instanton and…
A major fraction of the mass content of the universe is composed of dark matter (DM), i.e. particles not interacting significantly with electromagnetic radiation, with ordinary matter or self-interacting (cold dark matter). The axion is…
First I will review the QCD theta problem and the Peccei-Quinn solution, with its new particle, the axion. I will review the possibility of the axion as dark matter. If PQ symmetry was restored at some point in the hot early Universe, it…
We study cosmological effects of explicit Peccei-Quinn breaking on the QCD axion dark matter. We find that the axion abundance decreases or increases significantly depending on the initial position, even for a tiny Peccei-Quinn breaking…
The QCD Lagrangian contains a CP violating gluon density term with a physical coefficient $\bar{\theta}$. The upper bound on the electric dipole moment of neutron implies that the value of $\bar{\theta}$ should be extremely small rather…
We discuss the constraint on the size of QCD instanton effects in low-energy effective theory. Among various instanton effects in meson mass spectrum and dynamics, we concentrate on the instanton-induced masses of light quarks. The famous…
Axion fields provide the most elegant solution to the strong CP problem. In string compactifications it is difficult to obtain an axion whose decay constant is consistent with current cosmological bounds. We examine this question in…