Related papers: A Heavy QCD Axion and the Mirror World
If one simultaneously invokes the SUSY solution to the gauge hierarchy problem and the PQ solution to the strong CP problem, then one might expect mixed axion/neutralino dark matter (DM), i.e. two dark matter particles. In this case, dark…
The recent detection of B-modes by BICEP2 has non-trivial implications for axion dark matter implied by combining the tensor interpretation with isocurvature constraints from Planck. In this paper the measurement is taken as fact, and its…
We propose a minimal extension of the standard model which includes only one additional complex scalar field, flavon, with flavor-dependent global U(1) symmetry. It not only explains the hierarchical flavor structure in the quark and lepton…
The QCD axion is the leading solution to the strong-CP problem, a dark matter candidate, and a possible result of string theory compactifications. However, for axions produced before inflation, symmetry-breaking scales of $f_a \gtrsim…
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…
It has recently been shown that if the dark matter is in thermal equilibrium with a sector that is highly decoupled from the Standard Model, it can freeze-out with an acceptable relic abundance, even if the dark matter is as heavy as ~1-100…
We propose simple scenarios where lepton flavor-violating couplings generate the observed dark matter abundance through freeze-in of an axion-like particle with mass in the few keV range. Compared to flavor-diagonal freeze-in, this…
We review the motivation for the axion as a solution of the strong CP puzzle and as a candidate for cold dark matter. Then we discuss benchmark axion models and present their predictions concerning axion couplings to the Standard Model and…
A small breaking of R-parity reconciles thermal leptogenesis, gravitino dark matter and primordial nucleosynthesis. We find that the same breaking relaxes cosmological bounds on the axion multiplet. Naturally expected spectra become allowed…
We reconsider entropy arguments which have been previously argued to support the idea that the dark matter constituents are primordial black holes with many solar masses. It has recently been shown that QCD axions which solve the strong CP…
The domain wall problem of the Peccei-Quinn mechanism can be solved if the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is explicitly broken by a small amount. Domain walls decay into axions, which may account for dark matter of the universe. This scheme is…
Light axion-like particles occur in many theories of beyond-Standard-Model physics, and may make up some or all of the universe's dark matter. One of the ways they can couple to the Standard Model is through the electromagnetic $F_{\mu\nu}…
We present a new mechanism to solve the strong CP problem using $N\geq2$ axions, each dynamically relaxing part of the $\bar\theta$ parameter. At high energies $M\gg\Lambda_{QCD}$ the $SU(3)_{c}$ group becomes the diagonal subgroup of an…
Motivated by the galactic positron excess seen by PAMELA and ATIC/PPB-BETS, we propose that dark matter is a TeV-scale particle that annihilates into a pseudoscalar "axion." The positron excess and the absence of an anti-proton or gamma ray…
The oscillating light axion field is known as wave dark matter. We propose an LC-resonance enhanced detection of the narrow band electric signals induced by the axion dark matter using a solenoid magnet facility. We provide full 3D…
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…
We consider a dark matter (DM) model offering a very natural explanation of the observed relation, $\Omega_{\rm dark} \sim \Omega_{\rm visible}$. This generic consequence of the model is a result of the common origin of both types of matter…
Most of the mass of ordinary matter has its origin from quantum chromodynamics (QCD). A similar strong dynamics, dark QCD, could exist to explain the mass origin of dark matter. Using infrared fixed points of the two gauge couplings, we…
The next generation of axion direct detection experiments may rule out or confirm axions as the dominant source of dark matter. We develop a general likelihood-based framework for studying the time-series data at such experiments, with a…
We present a solution to the strong CP problem in which a simple chiral U(1) gauge symmetry gives rise to an accidental Peccei-Quinn symmetry that is both explicitly and spontaneously broken by mirror QCD dynamics, yielding a framework…