Related papers: Evidence for axion miniclusters with an increased …
We study the gravitational collapse of axion dark matter fluctuations in the post-inflationary scenario, so-called axion miniclusters, with N-body simulations. Largely confirming theoretical expectations, overdensities begin to collapse in…
If the symmetry breaking responsible for axion dark matter production occurs during the radiation-dominated epoch in the early Universe, then this produces large amplitude perturbations that collapse into dense objects known as axion…
The Peak-Patch algorithm is used to identify the densest minicluster seeds in the initial axion density field simulated from string decay. The fate of these dense seeds is found by tracking the subsequent gravitational collapse in…
Axion miniclusters are dense bound structures of dark matter axions that are predicted to form in the post-inflationary Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking scenario. Although dense, miniclusters can easily be perturbed or even become unbound by…
A consequence of QCD axion dark matter being born after inflation is the emergence of small-scale substructures known as miniclusters. Although miniclusters merge to form minihalos, this intrinsic granularity is expected to remain imprinted…
We study the small scale structure of axion dark matter in the post-inflationary scenario, which predicts the formation of low-mass, high-density clumps of gravitationally bound axions called axion miniclusters. To this end, we follow…
The axion, motivated as a solution to the strong CP problem, is also a viable dark matter candidate. We use N-body simulations to study the formation of substructures from white-noise density fluctuations. The density profiles of our…
Non-linear effects in the evolution of the axion field in the early Universe may lead to the formation of gravitationally bound clumps of axions, known as ``miniclusters.'' Minicluster masses and radii should be in the range $M_{\rm…
We use a modified version of the Peak Patch excursion set formalism to compute the mass and size distribution of QCD axion miniclusters from a fully non-Gaussian initial density field obtained from numerical simulations of axion string…
In the scenario in which QCD axion dark matter is produced after inflation, the Universe is populated by large inhomogeneities on very small scales. Eventually, these fluctuations will collapse gravitationally to form dense axion…
Axions are a viable candidate for Cold Dark Matter (CDM) which should generically form minihalos of sub-planetary masses from white-noise isocurvature density fluctuations if the Peccei-Quinn phase transition occurs after inflation. Despite…
Previously, it has been established that axion dark matter (DM) is clustered to form clumps (axion miniclusters) with masses $M\sim10^{-12}M_\odot$. The passages of such clumps through the Earth are very rare events occurring once in $10^5$…
If QCD axion dark matter formed post-inflation, axion miniclusters emerged from isocurvature fluctuations and later merged hierarchically into minihalos. These minihalos, potentially disrupted by stellar encounters in the Milky Way, affect…
Axionic dark matter can form miniclusters and minicluster halos from inhomogenuities in the early Universe. If MCHs are sufficiently massive, their existence can be revealed by small-scale gravitational tidal perturbation to halo-like…
In this proceeding, we briefly review three recent results. First, we show that halos formed in simulations with gas cooling are significantly rounder than halos formed in dissipationless $N$-body simulations. The increase in principle axis…
Locating the centers of dark matter halos is critical for understanding the mass profiles of halos as well as the formation and evolution of the massive galaxies that they host. The task is observationally challenging because we cannot…
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…
The clustering properties of dark matter halos are a firm prediction of modern theories of structure formation. We use two large volume, high-resolution N-body simulations to study how the correlation function of massive dark matter halos…
Non-linear effects in the evolution of the axion field in the early Universe may lead to the formation of gravitationally bound clumps of axions, known as "miniclusters". Minicluster masses should be in the range $M_{\rm mc}\sim10^{-12}…
When Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking happens after inflation, the axion field takes random values in causally disconnected regions. This leads to fluctuations of order one in the axion energy density around the QCD epoch. These…