Related papers: Remarks on the Axion Domain Wall Problem
We discuss inflation models within supersymmetry and supergravity frameworks with a landscape of chiral superfields and one $U(1)$ shift symmetry which is broken by non-perturbative symmetry breaking terms in the superpotential. We label…
The previous proposal (by two of us) of chain inflation with the QCD axion is shown to fail. The proposal involved a series of fast tunneling events, yet here it is shown that tunneling is too slow. We calculate the bubble nucleation rates…
Spontaneous breaking of discrete symmetries play non-trivial role in many well-motivated particle physics models. However, it leads to a network of cosmologically unwanted domain walls (DWs) which can be made unstable by introducing a bias…
The far infrared physics is a fascinating topic for theoretical physics, since the foundation of quantum field theory and neutrinos seem to be strongly related with the far infrared physics of our Universe. In this work we shall explore the…
While axions seem ubiquitous in critical string theories, whether they might survive in any string theoretic description of nature is a difficult question. With some mild assumptions, one can frame the issues in the case that there is an…
We numerically investigate the decay, via parametric resonance, of the inflaton with an m^2 phi^2 potential into a scalar matter field with a symmetry breaking potential. We consider the case where symmetry breaking takes place during…
Axionic domain walls, as they move through the early universe plasma during their collapse, can generate a net baryon and lepton number through the mechanism of spontaneous baryogenesis, provided that there is a coupling between the axion…
In supersymmetric theories, the Peccei-Quinn symmetry has a complex extension as a symmetry of the superpotential, so that the scalar potential always has an almost flat direction, the dilaton. We discuss how coherent oscillation of the…
We consider the evolution of domain walls produced during an anisotropic phase in the very early universe, showing that the resulting network can be very anisotropic. If the domain walls are produced during an inflationary era, the network…
We study cosmological implications of the duality ($PSL(2,{\bf Z})$) invariant potential for the compactification radius $T$, arising in a class of superstring vacua. We show that in spite of having only one minimum in the fundamental…
Axions with broken discrete shift symmetry (axion monodromy) have recently played a central role both in the discussion of inflation and the `relaxion' approach to the hierarchy problem. We suggest a very minimalist way to constrain such…
The post-inflationary Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking scenario provides a unique opportunity to pinpoint the QCD axion dark matter mass, which is a crucial input for laboratory experiments that are designed for probing specific mass…
The axion, originally postulated by Peccei and Quinn to solve the strong CP problem, has become of great interest in particle and astroparticle phenomenology. Yet it has a problem. It is widely assumed that the axion leaves the…
If the symmetry breaking leading to the origin of the axion dark matter field occurs after the end of inflation and is never restored, then overdensities in the axion field collapse to form dense objects known in the literature as axion…
It is shown that late-time decay of domain walls can dilute unwanted relics such as moduli, if the universe was dominated by frustrated domain walls with tension $\sigma = (1 - 100 TeV)^3$. Since energy density of the frustrated domain…
We discuss a possibility that the domain wall problem in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model is alleviated without introducing a small explicit $Z_3$ breaking term by analyzing the evolution of the singlet scalar field within…
We implement the scenario of early relaxation of the axion via a high scale confinement within $SU(5)$ grand unified theory and study an epoch of strong QCD in inflationary cosmology. We consider scenarios in which, during inflation, the…
We reexamine the recently proposed "little inflation" scenario that allows for a strong first order phase-transition of QCD at non-negligible baryon number in the early universe and its possible observable consequences. The scenario is…
We study collisions between nearly planar domain walls including the effects of small initial nonplanar fluctuations. These perturbations represent the small fluctuations that must exist in a quantum treatment of the problem. In a previous…
Ultracompact dark matter (DM) minihalos at masses at and below $10^{-12}$ $M_\odot$ arise in axion DM models where the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is broken after inflation. The minihalos arise from density perturbations that are generated…