Related papers: Collapse of Axionic Domain Wall and Axion Emission
We report that axions and photons exhibit instability in the presence of cosmic strings that are carrying magnetic flux in their core. The strength of the instability is determined by the symmetry breaking scale of the cosmic string theory.…
We entertain the exotic possibility that dark matter (DM) decays or annihilations taking place in our galaxy may produce a flux of relativistic very weakly-coupled bosons, axions or dark photons. We show that there exist several upper…
Recently, results from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) DR6 have shown a preference for isotropic cosmic birefringence, consistent with previous analyses based on Planck and WMAP data. Separately, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic…
The growth of adiabatic density perturbations during an era of early matter domination induces $\mathcal{O}(1)$ fluctuations in pre-inflationary QCD axion dark matter across a broad, string-theory-motivated parameter space. Remarkably, at…
Stable topological defects of light (pseudo)scalar fields can contribute to the Universe's dark energy and dark matter. Currently the combination of gravitational and cosmological constraints provides the best limits on such a possibility.…
A QCD axion with a time-dependent decay constant has been known to be able to accommodate high-scale inflation without producing topological defects or too large isocurvature perturbations on CMB scales. We point out that a dynamical decay…
We study the gravitational collapse of an axion field in null coordinates, assuming spherical symmetry. Compared with previous studies, we use a simpler numerical scheme which can run, for relevant parameters, in a few minutes or less on a…
We consider wake-like density fluctuations produced by cosmic strings at the quark-hadron transition in the early universe. We show that low momentum axions which are produced through the radiation from the axionic string at an earlier…
We propose two novel solutions to the domain wall problem of the QCD axion by introducing a massless or light axion that also couples to gluons. The first solution applies when the new axion forms strings after inflation. Due to its mixing…
The possibility that the energy density of the Universe is dominated by a network of low-tension domain walls provides an alternative to the commonly discussed cosmological constant and scalar-field quintessence models of dark energy. We…
We propose a new scenario of baryogenesis, in which annihilation of axion domain walls generates a sizable baryon asymmetry. Successful baryogenesis is possible for a wide range of the axion mass and decay constant, $m \simeq 10^8 -10^{13}$…
A recent study has shown that domain walls with inflationary initial fluctuations exhibit remarkable stability against population bias due to long-range correlations, challenging the claims of prior research. In this paper, we study the…
In the wide variety of axion cosmologies in which axion strings form, their radiative decay is the dominant mechanism for the production of axions, imposing a tight constraint on the axion mass. Here, we focus on the mechanism by which…
We show that if dark matter consists of QCD axions in the post-inflationary scenario more than ten percent of it efficiently collapses into Bose stars at matter-radiation equality. Such a result is mostly independent of the present…
Axions and dark photons are common in many extensions of the Standard Model. The dark axion portal -- an axion coupling to the dark photon and photon -- can significantly modify their phenomenology. We study the cosmological constraints on…
One idea to explain the mysterious dark energy which appears to pervade the Universe is that it is due to a network of domain walls which has frozen into some kind of static configuration, akin to a soap film. Such models predict an…
Domain walls (DWs) can be produced when a discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken, and long-lived DWs can dominate the energy density of the universe. In this work, we explore the possibility that a "domain wall dominant (DWD)" phase…
The next generation of axion direct detection experiments may rule out or confirm axions as the dominant source of dark matter. We develop a general likelihood-based framework for studying the time-series data at such experiments, with a…
The recent BICEP2 result shows that the Universe once has gone through the vacuum with the GUT scale energy density. The implied high scale inflation nullifies the dilution idea of topological defects, strings and domain walls, of the…
The current cosmological constraints on a dark matter axion are reviewed. We describe the basic mechanisms by which axions are created in the early universe, both in the standard thermal scenario in which axion strings form and in…