Related papers: String Theory and Grand Unification Suggest a Sub-…
The post-inflationary Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking scenario provides a unique opportunity to pinpoint the QCD axion dark matter mass, which is a crucial input for laboratory experiments that are designed for probing specific mass…
Low scale string models naturally have axion-like pseudoscalars which couple directly to gluons and photons (but not $W$s) at tree level. We show how they typically get tree level masses in the presence of closed string fluxes, consistent…
The decay constant of the QCD axion is required by observation to be small compared to the Planck scale. In theories of "natural inflation," and certain proposed anthropic solutions of the cosmological constant problem, it would be…
I review the relations between mass scales in various string theories and in M-theory. I discuss physical motivations and possible consistent realizations of large volume compactifications and low string scale. Large longitudinal…
Cold dark matter axions produced in the post-inflationary Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking scenario serve as clear targets for their experimental detection, since it is in principle possible to give a sharp prediction for their mass once we…
We study the QCD axion arising from the 5th component of a bulk $U(1)$ gauge field in a five-dimensional warped grand unified theory, and determine the viable range of the axion decay constant $f_a$. Unlike flat extra dimensions, where…
We show that the couplings of axions to gauge bosons are highly restricted in Grand Unified Theories where the standard model is embedded in a simple 4D gauge group. The topological nature of these couplings allows them to be matched from…
A favored scenario for axions to be dark matter is for them to form a cosmic string network that subsequently decays, allowing for a tight link between the axion mass and relic abundance. We discuss an example in which the axion is…
In recent years it has been realized that in string/$M$ theories compactified to four dimensions which satisfy cosmological constraints, it is possible to make some generic predictions for particle physics and dark matter: a non-thermal…
Understanding axion cosmology has important experimental consequences since it constrains the range of allowed values for the axion mass. In the standard thermal scenario, which assumes Peccei-Quinn symmetry restoration after inflation, an…
We study closed string axions in type IIB orientifold compactifications. We show that for natural values of the background fluxes the moduli stabilisation mechanism of the LARGE Volume Scenario (LVS) gives rise to an axiverse characterised…
If nature is described by string theory, and if the compactification radius is large (as suggested by the unification of couplings), then the theory is in a regime best described by the low energy limit of $M$-theory. We discuss some…
String theories suggest the existence of a plethora of axion-like fields with masses spread over a huge number of decades. Here we show that these ideas lend themselves to a model of quintessence with no super-Planckian field excursions and…
We study general class of small-field axion inflations which are the mixture of polynomial and sinusoidal functions suggested by the natural and axion monodromy inflations. The axion decay constants leading to the successful axion…
We study the contribution to the QCD axion dark matter abundance that is produced by string defects during the so-called scaling regime. Clear evidence of scaling violations is found, the most conservative extrapolation of which strongly…
Ultra-light axions ($m_a\lesssim 10^{-18}$eV), motivated by string theory, can be a powerful probe of the energy scale of inflation. In contrast to heavier axions the isocurvature modes in the ultra-light axions can coexist with observable…
Axions are hypothetical particles that may explain the observed dark matter (DM) density and the non-observation of a neutron electric dipole moment. An increasing number of axion laboratory searches are underway worldwide, but these…
A class of supersymmetric grand unified theories is introduced that has a single scale below the cutoff, that of the supersymmetry breaking masses $\tilde{m}$. For a wide range of the dimensionless parameters, agreement with the observed…
Axions arising as modes of higher-dimensional gauge fields are known to offer a compelling solution to the axion quality problem and to naturally arise in string theory. In this context, it is interesting to ask how we would interpret an…
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…