Related papers: Multiple Axions Save High-Scale Inflation
The inflationary paradigm has enjoyed phenomenological success, however, a compelling particle physics realization is still lacking. The key obstruction is that the requirement of a suitably flat scalar potential is sensitive to…
If inflation scale is high, light scalars acquire large quantum fluctuations during inflation.If sufficiently long-lived, they will give rise to CDM isocurvature perturbations, which are highly constrained by the Planck data. Focusing on…
We study the dynamics of axion-like fields in F-theory and suggest that they can serve as inflatons in models of natural inflation. The axions arise from harmonic three-forms on the F-theory compactification space and parameterize a complex…
We show that the required high quality of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry can be naturally explained in the aligned QCD axion models where the QCD axion arises from multiple axions with decay constants much smaller than the axion window, e.g.,…
We show that, for values of the axion decay constant parametrically close to the GUT scale, the Peccei-Quinn phase transition may naturally occur during warm inflation. This results from interactions between the Peccei-Quinn scalar field…
Light scalar and pseudoscalar particles are compelling dark matter candidates, with a vast running experimental program to discover them. Previous studies have shown that these light fields can generate sizable isocurvature perturbations in…
Several theoretical motivations point to ultralight QCD axions with large decay constants $f_a \simeq \mathcal{O}(10^{16}-10^{17})$ GeV, to which experimental proposals are dedicated. This regime is known to face the problem of…
In the chaotic inflation models, quantum fluctuations for axion fields lead to the overproduction of domain walls and too large isocurvature fluctuations which is inconsistent with the observations of cosmic microwave background…
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 consider a model of inflation in which the inflaton field is a rolling axion with a potential which is flat enough to support an intermediate phase of USR inflation. Because of the Chern-Simons interaction, one polarization of the gauge…
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…
String scenarios generically predict that we live in a so called axiverse: the Universe with about a hundred of light axion species which are decoupled from the Standard Model particles. However, the axions can couple to the inflaton which…
Because the inflationary mechanism is extremely sensitive to UV-physics, the construction of theoretically robust models of inflation provides a unique window on Planck-scale physics. We review efforts to use an axion with a shift symmetry…
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…
If the inflationary phase lasted longer than the minimal period, the length scales observed today originate from modes that were smaller than the Planck length during inflation. It was recently argued that this "trans-Planckian problem" can…
We study parameter space in the axion monodromy inflation corrected by dynamically generated terms involving with the axion. The potential has the linear potential with multiple sinusoidal functions, which play a role in generating…
The QCD axion is a good dark matter candidate. The observed dark matter abundance can arise from misalignment or defect mechanisms, which generically require an axion decay constant $f_a \sim \mathcal{O}(10^{11})$ GeV (or higher). We…
The QCD axion and an axion-like particle (ALP) are compelling candidates of dark matter. For the QCD axion, it is known that when the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is spontaneously broken after inflation, the large initial fluctuation can lead…
Flaton models of Peccei-Quinn symmetry have good particle physics motivation, and are likely to cause thermal inflation leading to a well-defined cosmology. They can solve the $\mu$ problem, and generate viable neutrino masses. Canonical…
Supersymmetric Peccei-Quinn models which provide a suitable candidate for the curvaton field are studied. These models also solve the mu problem, while generating the Peccei-Quinn scale dynamically. The curvaton is a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone…