Related papers: Excluding MeV-scale QCD axions by $K_L \to \pi^0\p…
There has been an attempt to revive the visible QCD axion at the 10 MeV scale assuming that it exclusively couples to the first-generation quarks and the electron. This variant of the QCD axion is claimed to remain phenomenologically…
The QCD axion is one of the most compelling solutions of the strong CP problem. There are major current efforts into searching for an ultralight, invisible axion, which is believed to be the only phenomenologically viable realization of the…
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…
We report on an interesting realization of the QCD axion, with mass in the range $\mathcal{O}(10)$ MeV. It has previously been shown that although this scenario is stringently constrained from multiple sources, the model remains viable for…
We study rare three- and four-body kaon decays as a probe of light vector and axial-vector bosons coupled to non-conserved currents. We find that searches for $K_L \to \pi^0 \pi^0 (X\to e^+e^-)$ decays constrain the couplings of light $X$…
The QCD axion remains experimentally viable in the mass range of O(10 MeV) if (i) it couples predominantly to the first generation of SM fermions; (ii) it decays to $e^+ e^-$ with a short lifetime $\tau_a\lesssim 10^{-13}\,$s; and (iii) it…
Two-body decays like $K \to \pi a$ rank among the most constraining collider probes for new, low-mass, feebly interacting pseudoscalar particles $a$. We explore an alternative class of kaon decay modes, specifically three-body decays to…
The mass of the axion and its decay rate are known to depend only on the scale of Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking, which is constrained by astrophysics and cosmology to be between $10^9$ and $10^{12}$ GeV. We propose a new mechanism such…
The first dedicated experiment for the rare kaon decay $K^0_L \to \pi^0 \nu \bar{\nu}$ has been performed by the E391a collaboration at the KEK 12-GeV proton synchrotron. A new upper limit of $2.1 \times 10^{-7}$ at the 90% confidence level…
Murayama proposed a GeV-scale axion theory where the up-quark mass term is generated dynamically by the QCD chiral condensate, spontaneously breaking a Peccei-Quinn symmetry. It predicts a too large mass splitting between neutral and…
We argue that the QCD axion can arise from many aligned axions with decay constants much smaller than the conventional axion window. If the typical decay constant is of {\cal O}{(100)} GeV to 1 TeV, one or more of the axions or saxions may…
We point out kaon decays to multiple charged leptons as a novel probe of light dark particles $X$. Previously neglected channels, such as $K^+\to \pi^+ \left(XX \to 2(e^+e^-)\right)$, $K_L\to \pi^0 \left( XX \to 2(e^+e^-)\right)$, and…
We searched for the $CP$-violating rare decay of neutral kaon, $K_{L} \to \pi^0 \nu \overline{\nu}$, in data from the first 100 hours of physics running in 2013 of the J-PARC KOTO experiment. One candidate event was observed while…
The prospect of experimental verification of the large extra dimension scenario in rare decays is discussed. The case of J/\Psi and \Upsilon to photon + missing energy is calculated in detail, and it is shown that the limit on the…
The KTeV experiment has carried out a broad program of studies of rare kaon decays. In this paper we present results on KL -> pi0 gamma gamma, KL -> pi0 e+ e- gamma and KL -> pi0 pi0 gamma. These decays provide a window for testing chiral…
In order to solve the strong CP problem, we study the possibility that the Peccei--Quinn symmetry is broken {\it below}\/ the QCD scale. We find that a QCD axion can be above GeV, and may be among the observed $\eta$ resonances. It is…
Clean tests of a small admixture of right-handed quark currents directly coupled to the standard W are still lacking. We show that such non-standard couplings can be significantly constrained measuring the value of the scalar Kpi form…
We extend our previous formulation of low-energy QCD in terms of an effective lagrangian containing operators of dimensionality $d\le 6$ constructed with pseudoscalars and quark fields, describing physics below the scale of chiral symmetry…
The recent discovery of a large CP violating asymmetry in K(L) --> PI+ PI- E+ E- mode has prompted us to seach for the associated K(L) --> PI0 PI0 E+ E- decay mode in the KTeV-E799 experiment at Fermilab. In 2.7E+11 K(L) decays, one…
We report that the hypothesis that the upper bound on the axion decay constant can be moved up beyond $10^{12}$ GeV in models with a stronger QCD in the early universe is not realized. This proof is possible by studying the superpotential…