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Axions are hypothetical pseudoscalar particles that have been regarded as promising dark matter (DM) candidates. On the other hand, extended compact objects such as axion stars, which are supported by gravity and axion self interactions,…
The axion has emerged in recent years as a leading particle candidate to provide the mysterious dark matter in the cosmos, as we review here for a general scientific audience. We describe first the historical roots of the axion in the…
Gas giant planets have been detected on eccentric orbits several hundreds of astronomical units in size around other stars. It has been proposed that even the Sun hosts a wide-orbit planet of 5-10 Earth masses, often called Planet Nine,…
The Planet Nine hypothesis encompasses a body of about 5-8 Earth's masses whose orbital plane would be inclined to the ecliptic by one or two tens of degrees and whose perihelion distance would be as large as about 240-385 astronomical…
A hypothetical particle known as the axion holds the potential to resolve both the cosmic dark matter riddle and particle physics' long-standing, strong CP dilemma. An unusually strong 21-cm absorption feature associated with the initial…
Axion-photon conversion is a prime mechanism to detect axion-like particles that share a coupling to the photon. We point out that in the vicinity of neutron stars with strong magnetic fields, magnetars, the effective photon mass receives…
We study novel solitonic solutions to Einstein-Klein-Gordon theory in the presence of a periodic scalar potential arising in models of axion-like particles. The potential depends on two parameters: the mass of the scalar field $m_a$ and the…
Probing the existence of hypothetical particles beyond the Standard model often deals with extreme parameters: large energies, tiny cross-sections, large time scales, etc. Sometimes laboratory experiments can test required regions of…
The strong CP problem and its resolution through the existence of an axion are briefly reviewed. The constraints on the axion from accelerator searches, from the evolution of red giants and from supernova SN1987a combine to require $m_a < 3…
Axions may make a significant contribution to the dark matter of the universe. It has been suggested that these dark matter axions may condense into localized clumps, called "axion stars." In this paper we argue that collisions of dilute…
We consider a general class of axion models, including the QCD and string axion, in which the PQ symmetry is broken before or during inflation. Assuming the axion is the dominant component of the dark matter, we discuss axion star formation…
A distant, massive planet in the outer solar system has recently been proposed to explain some observed features of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). Here we use N-body simulations of the formation of the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud as…
We show that axion stars formed from axions with nearly Planck-scale decay constants $f$ are unstable to decay, and are unlikely to have phenomenological consequences. More generally, we show how results at smaller $f$ cannot be naively…
We examine high-density axion clusters under gravitational compression. These are transient events in which the majority of axions are rapidly converted into photons, with some configurations producing photon signals with distinctive and…
We estimate collapse rates of axion stars in our galaxy based on the axion minicluster mass function of the Milky Way dark matter halo. We consider axion-like particles with different temperature evolution of the axion mass, including the…
We present novel findings concerning the parameter space of axion stars, extended object forming in dense dark matter environments through gravitational condensation. We emphasize their formation within the dense minihalos that potentially…
Axion-like dark matter whose symmetry breaking occurs after the end of inflation predicts enhanced primordial density fluctuations at small scales. This leads to dense axion minihalos (or miniclusters) forming early in the history of the…
The present surge for the astrophysical relevance of boson stars stems from the speculative possibility that these compact objects could provide a considerable fraction of the non-baryonic part of dark matter within the halo of galaxies.…
We present a comprehensive study of axion condensed neutron stars that arise in models of an exceptionally light axion that couples to quantum chromodynamics (QCD). These axions solve the strong-charge-parity (CP) problem, but have a…
Most matter in the Universe is invisible and unknown, which is called dark matter. A candidate of dark matter is axion, which is an ultra-light particle motivated as a solution for the CP problem. Axions form clouds in a galactic halo,…