Related papers: Axion-Neutrino Couplings, Late-time Phase Transiti…
Axions, if realized in nature, can be copiously produced in the early universe via thermal processes, contributing to the mass-energy density of thermal hot relics. In light of the most recent cosmological observations, we analyze two…
Cosmological evolution of axion field in the early universe might be significantly affected by a thermal friction induced by the axion coupling to thermalized hidden sector. We examine the effects of such a thermal friction on axion dark…
Light axions can potentially leave a cosmic background, just like neutrinos. We complete the study of thermal axion production across the electroweak scale by providing a smooth and continuous treatment through the two phases. Focusing on…
We present a systematic study of QCD axion production in environments with finite baryon density and temperature, implying significant changes to axion phenomenology. Within heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory, we derive the effective…
We consider the production of axion dark matter through the misalignment mechanism in the context of a nonstandard cosmological history involving early matter domination by a scalar field with a time-dependent decay rate. In cases where the…
In this work, we investigate the dark sector of a supersymmetric axion model, consisting of the late-decaying gravitino/axino dark matter and axion dark radiation. In the early universe, the decay of the scalar superpartner of the axion…
We present a novel realization of axion kinetic misalignment, triggered by a Hubble-induced phase transition during a post-inflationary stiff (kination) era. A negative Ricci scalar flips the sign of a non-minimally coupled mass term for a…
Sterile neutrinos can be generated in the early universe through oscillations with active neutrinos and represent a popular and well-studied candidate for our universe's dark matter. Stringent constraints from X-ray and gamma-ray line…
It is usually assumed that dark matter is produced during the radiation dominated era. There is, however, no direct evidence for radiation domination prior to big-bang nucleosynthesis. Two non-standard thermal histories are considered. In…
Relativistic axions are good candidates for the dark radiation for which there are mounting observational hints. The primordial decays of heavy fields produce axions which are ultra-energetic compared to thermalised matter and inelastic…
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…
Axions are produced during a period of dilaton-driven inflation by amplification of quantum fluctuations. We show that for some range of string cosmology parameters and some range of axion masses, primordial axions may constitute a large…
Extending the Standard Model with three right-handed neutrinos and a simple QCD axion sector can account for neutrino oscillations, dark matter and baryon asymmetry; at the same time, it solves the strong CP problem, stabilizes the…
We show that the initial misalignment angle of the QCD axion (or axion-like particles) can be set very close to $\pi$, if the QCD axion has a mixing with another heavy axion which induces the phase shift $\approx \pi$ after inflation. In…
There is no direct evidence for radiation domination prior to big-bang nucleosynthesis, and so it is useful to consider how constraints to thermally-produced axions change in non-standard thermal histories. In the low-temperature-reheating…
We study the time evolution of the quantum fluctuations of the axion field for both the QCD axion as well as axions arising in the context of supergravity and string theories. We explicitly keep track not only of the coherently oscillating…
The misalignment mechanism for axion production depends on the temperature-dependent axion mass. The latter has recently been determined within the interacting instanton liquid model (IILM), and provides for the first time a well-motivated…
Generating axion dark matter through the kinetic misalignment mechanism implies the generation of large asymmetries for Standard Model fermions in the early universe. Even if these asymmetries are washed out at later times, they can trigger…
We investigate the possibility that the Peccei-Quinn phase transition occurs at a temperature far below the symmetry breaking scale. Low phase transition temperatures are typical in supersymmetric theories, where symmetry breaking fields…
The QCD axion is one of the best motivated dark matter candidates. The misalignment mechanism is well known to produce an abundance of the QCD axion consistent with dark matter for an axion decay constant of order $10^{12}$ GeV. For a…