Related papers: Axion species scale and axion weak gravity conject…
Asymptotically safe gravity is based on the idea of the dependence of the gravitational coupling upon the distance from the origin, approaching its classical value in the weak field regime. We consider three cases of identifying the cut-off…
The axionic weak gravity conjecture predicts the existence of instantons whose actions are less than their charges in appropriate units. We show that the conjecture is satisfied for the axion-dilaton-gravity system if we assume duality…
We argue that in theories of quantum gravity with discrete gauge symmetries, e.g. $\textbf{Z}_k$, the gauge couplings of U$(1)$ gauge symmetries become weak in the limit of large $k$, as $g\to k^{-\alpha}$ with $\alpha$ a positive order 1…
Axion and axion-like particle models are typically affected by a strong fine-tuning problem in conceiving the electroweak and the Peccei-Quinn breaking scales. Within the context of the Minimal Linear {\sigma} Model, axion-like particle…
We reinterpret publicly available $K^+ \to \pi^+ \nu \bar{\nu}$ data collected by NA62 from 2016 to 2024 to constrain the fundamental vectorial coupling of the QCD axion to down and strange quarks. Using a fully reproducible likelihood…
Conventionally, the strong-$CP$ problem is assumed to be a naturalness puzzle, with the axion solution sometimes viewed as an ad hoc fix. Gravity is either ignored or taken as a threat for the global Peccei-Quinn symmetry. We explain that…
We analyse particle species and the species scale in quantum gravity from a thermodynamic perspective. In close analogy to black hole thermodynamics, we propose that particle species own an entropy and a temperature, which is determined by…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) posits that gravity must be the weakest force in any consistent theory of quantum gravity. Originally formulated to constrain the landscape of effective field theories arising from string theory, the WGC…
In a previous work, a mechanism was presented by which baryon asymmetry can be generated during inflation from elliptically polarized gravitons. Nonetheless, the mechanism only generated a realistic baryon asymmetry under special…
Quantum gravitational effects become significant at a cut-off species scale that can be much lower than the Planck scale whenever we get a parametrically large number of fields becoming light. This is expected to occur at any perturbative…
A simple hadronic axion model is proposed in the framework of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. Dynamics of Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking is governed by supersymmetry breaking effects and the Peccei-Quinn breaking scale $f_{PQ}$ is…
The effect of gravitational fluctuations on the quantum effective potential for scalar fields is a key ingredient for predictions of the mass of the Higgs boson, understanding the gauge hierarchy problem and a possible explanation of…
We study the minimal requirements to obtain axion strings for axions with exponentially good quality. These ingredients appear in theories where an axion coming from a higher-form gauge field mixes with the phase of a complex scalar field…
It is generally accepted that consistent coupling to quantum gravity implies that any low energy free parameter is in reality the vacuum expectation value of some local quantum field. In this note we present a modest attempt to prove this…
The discovery of an axion-like particle above the QCD line would rule out Grand Unified Theories, including the perturbative heterotic string with the Standard Model embedded in a single $E_8$ factor or $SO(32)$. In this work we study a…
Four-dimensional strings with the standard model gauge group $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ give model-dependent predictions for the tree level weak mixing-angle. In the presence of an extra pseudo-anomalous gauged- ${U(1)}_X$, the value of…
Axions play a central role in inflationary model building and other cosmological applications. This is mainly due to their flat potential, which is protected by a global shift symmetry. However, quantum gravity is known to break global…
The weak gravity conjecture (WGC) is an ultraviolet consistency condition asserting that an Abelian force requires a state of charge $q$ and mass $m$ with $q>m/m_{\rm Pl}$. We generalize the WGC to product gauge groups and study its tension…
The swampland conjecture known as Festina Lente (FL) imposes a lower bound on the mass of all charged particles in a quasi-de Sitter space. In this paper, we propose the aFL (axionic Festina Lente) bound, an extension of FL to axion-like…
Quantum gravity (QG) has a natural cutoff given by the Planck scale $M_{\rm pl}$. However, it is known that the EFT of gravity can break down at a lower scale, the species scale $\Lambda_s\lesssim M_{\rm pl}$, if there are light species of…