Related papers: Constraining Axion and ALP Dark Matter from Misali…
Many works have concentrated on the observable signatures of the dark matter being an ultralight axion-like particle (ALP). We concentrate on a particularly dramatic signature in the late-time cosmological matter power spectrum that occurs…
The subjects of this thesis are the invisible axion and the more general family of axion-like particles. The invisible axion is a hypothetical elementary particle and a cold dark matter candidate. I present an improved computation of the…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) are often considered as good candidates for dark matter. Several mechanisms generating relic abundance of ALP dark matter have been proposed. They may involve processes which take place before, during or after…
A model of high scale inflation is presented where the radial part of the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) field with a non-minimal coupling to gravity plays the role of the inflaton, and the QCD axion is the dark matter. A quantum fluctuation of…
We study preheating in theories where the inflaton couples derivatively to scalar and gauge fields. Such couplings may dominate in natural models of inflation, in which the flatness of the inflaton potential is related to an approximate…
Oscillating scalar field condensates induce small amplitude oscillations of the Hubble parameter which can induce a decay of the condensate due to a parametric resonance instability [1]. We show that this instability can lead to the decay…
We show that dark matter can be accounted for by an axion that solves the strong CP problem, but is much lighter than usual due to a $Z_\mathcal{N}$ symmetry. The whole mass range from the canonical QCD axion down to the ultra-light regime…
We consider the CMB constraints on reheating and dark matter parameter space for a specific plateau type inflationary model. The plateau inflationary models which are currently most favored models from data can be well approximated by a…
We revisit the isocurvature density perturbations induced by quantum fluctuations of the axion field by extending a recently developed analytic method and approximations to a time-dependent scalar potential, which enables us to follow the…
During the last decades, experimental advances have significantly constrained the standard electroweak-scale WIMP produced via thermal freeze-out, leading to a shift away from this standard paradigm. Here we explore the possibility of an…
Searches for axion-like particles (ALPs) are motivated by the strong CP problem in particle physics and by unexplained dark matter in astrophysics. In this letter, we discuss novel ALP searches using monoenergetic nuclear de-excitation…
Dark matter comprised of axion-like particles (ALPs) generated by the realignment mechanism in the post-inflationary scenario leads to primordial isocurvature fluctuations. The power spectrum of these fluctuations is flat for small wave…
Axion cold dark matter from standard misalignment typically requires a decay constant $f_a~\gtrsim~10^{11}$ GeV. Kinetic misalignment and parametric resonance easily allow lower values of $f_a$ when the radial Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry…
We study postinflationary scalar dark matter production via its non-minimal coupling to gravity. During the inflaton oscillation epoch, dark matter is produced resonantly for a sufficiently large non-minimal coupling $\xi\gtrsim 5$. We find…
Axion-like particles (ALPs) are hypothetical particles that serve as promising candidates for cold dark matter. Portals like inelastic axion scattering and axion propagated force have been employed to search for the upper limit of the ALPs'…
A concise summary of out-of-equilibrium dark matter production during post-inflationary reheating is presented. We show that the dark matter relic abundance is in general sensitive to the thermalization rate of the inflaton decay products,…
Analyses of inflation models are usually conducted assuming a specific range---e.g., $N_k \simeq 50-60$--of the number $N_k$ of $e$-folds of inflation. However, the analysis can also be performed by taking into account constraints imposed…
For the minimal QCD axion model it is generally believed that overproduction of dark matter constrains the axion mass to be above a certain threshold, or at least that the initial misalignment angle must be tuned if the mass is below that…
We investigate the possible parametric growth of photon amplitudes in a background of axion-like particle (ALP) dark matter. The observed extragalactic background radiation limits the allowed enhancement effect. We derive the resulting…
We investigate the production of particle Dark Matter (DM) in a minimal freeze-in model considering a non-instantaneous reheating phase after inflation. We demonstrate that for low reheating temperatures, bosonic or fermionic reheating from…