Related papers: Cosmic Axions
Many models of dark matter QCD axion requires inflation at a scale $H_{\text{inf}} \lesssim 10^{6}$~GeV and hence does not allow for a detectable tensor mode fluctuation. This is because the domain wall problem forces the Peccei--Quinn…
We review recent progress in string model building in both early and late time cosmology. We describe the main theoretical and phenomenological features of an entire class of inflationary models where inflation is driven by a type IIB…
Theories with several hundred axion fields have enormous numbers of distinct meta-stable minima. A small fraction of these local minima have vacuum energy compatible with current measurements of dark energy. The potential also contains…
Axions with mass greater than 0.7 eV are excluded by cosmological precision data because they provide too much hot dark matter. While for masses above 20 eV the axion lifetime drops below the age of the universe, we show that the…
The small-scale power spectrum of the cosmological matter distribution together with other cosmological data provides a sensitive measure of the hot dark matter fraction, leading to restrictive neutrino mass limits. We extend this argument…
Axions seem ubiquitous in string theories and some of them may be produced non-thermally by heavy scalar decays, contributing to dark radiation. We study various cosmological effects of photons produced from the axionic dark radiation…
We discuss the appearance at the QCD phase transition, and the subsequent decay, of axion walls bounded by strings in N=1 axion models. We argue on intuitive grounds that the main decay mechanism is into barely relativistic axions. We…
We study cosmological implications of supersymmetric axion models in which the axion scale is generated radiatively. Such models lead to the so-called thermal inflation and subsequent reheating should be constrained not to yield a too large…
Hot axions are produced in the early Universe via their interactions with Standard Model particles, contributing to dark radiation commonly parameterized as $\Delta N_{\text{eff}}$. In standard QCD axion benchmark models, this contribution…
We revisit the formation of a thermal population of hadronic axions in nonstandard cosmologies, in light of the recent developments in obtaining continuous and smooth interaction rates for both the gluon and photon couplings. For certain…
We propose a new mechanism for generating both luminous and dark matter during cosmic inflation. According to this mechanism, ordinary and dark matter carry common charge which is associated with an anomalous $ U(1)_{X} $ group. Anomaly…
Our ignorance of the period between the end of inflation and the beginning of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis limits our understanding of the origins and evolution of dark matter. One possibility is that the Universe's energy density was dominated…
In all supersymmetric theories, gravitinos, with mass suppressed by the Planck scale, are an obvious candidate for dark matter; but if gravitinos ever reached thermal equilibrium, such dark matter is apparently either too abundant or too…
We propose a new regime of minimal QCD axion dark matter that lies between the pre- and post-inflationary scenarios, such that the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is restored only on sufficiently large spatial scales. This leads to a novel…
It has recently been shown [1] that light vector particles produced from inflationary fluctuations can give rise to the dark matter in the Universe. A similar mechanism has been discussed in [2] for a non-minimally coupled scalar enjoying a…
The relic density of dark matter in the $\Lambda$CDM model restricts the parameter space for a cosmological axion field, constraining the axion decay constant, the initial amplitude of the axion field and the axion mass. It is shown via…
I present an introduction and topical review on axions as a dark matter candidate. Emphasis is placed on issues surrounding the cosmology of axion dark matter that are relevant for present-day searches, including: early-Universe production…
A relaxed primordial power spectrum (PPS) of scalar perturbations arising from inflation can impact the dark radiation constraints obtained from Cosmic Microwave Background and other cosmological measurements. If inflation produces a…
We analyze the spectrum of axions radiated from collapse of domain walls, which have received less attention in the literature. The evolution of topological defects related to the axion models is investigated by performing field-theoretic…
Dark photons could be produced resonantly by the oscillating axion field in the early universe. This resonant production mechanism has been used in various contexts, including dark photon dark matter and primordial magnetic field…