Related papers: A Quintessential Axion
We consider a late-time cosmological model based on a recent proposal that the infinite-bare-coupling limit of superstring/M-theory exists and has good phenomenological properties, including a vanishing cosmological constant, and a…
We study possibilities for lowering the decay constants of superstring axions. In the heterotic Calabi-Yau compactification, a localized model-dependent axion can appear at a nearly collapsing 2-cycle. The effect of flux can be used for…
Recently, attempts have been made to understand the apparent near coincidence of the present dark energy and matter energy in terms of a dynamical attractor-like solution for the evolution of a scalar field. In these models the field…
We study a scenario allowing a solution of the strong charge parity problem via the Peccei-Quinn mechanism, implemented in gravity with torsion. In this framework there appears a torsion-related pseudoscalar field known as Kalb-Ramond…
The weak gravity conjecture has been proposed as a criterion to distinguish the landscape from the swampland in string theory. As an application in cosmology of this conjecture, we use it to impose theoretical constraint on parameters of…
Introducing a vacuum angle $\theta_h$ in a strongly interacting hidden sector like QCD, we study how $\theta_h$ affects physical quantities in a scale invariant extension of the standard model with that hidden sector. In this model the…
In this letter, it is obtained using dual role of the Ricci scalar (physical as well as geometrical role of the Ricci scalar curvature) in a natural way without any input in the theory for it. In contrast to other models, where an idea for…
It is shown that four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric QCD with massive flavors in the fundamental representation of the gauge group can be realized in the hidden sector of E8xE8 heterotic string vacua. The number of flavors can be chosen to…
We investigate what it takes for the axion to address the strong CP problem in the presence of explicit Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking effects besides the strong interaction. In cases where the PQ-Higgsing scalar field directly couples…
We consider various candidates for Dark Energy, motivated by string theory. Several no-go theorems push de Sitter string vacua, with $w=-1$, to the limits of theoretical control, and all known examples depend on a delicate interplay between…
We show that dark matter can be accounted for by an axion that solves the strong CP problem, but is much lighter than usual due to a $Z_\mathcal{N}$ symmetry. The whole mass range from the canonical QCD axion down to the ultra-light regime…
The QCD axion needs not be an exact pseudoscalar for solving the strong CP problem. Its imperfectness can play a profound role cosmologically. We propose effective operators, where the Peccei-Quinn field linearly couples to Standard Model…
We analyze the impact of the $\theta$-angle and axion dynamics for two-color (in fact any $Sp(2N)$) QCD at nonzero baryon charge and as a function of the number of matter fields on the vacuum properties, the pattern of chiral symmetry…
In supergravity models, the quantum correction to the vacuum energy can be of order $M_I^4$, if the cutoff is of order the Planck mass $M^2_{P}$ and $Str\ {\cal M}^2\ne 0$. Therefore, the tree level cosmological constant must be nonzero…
Preferred axion models are minimal realizations of the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong CP problem while providing a dark matter candidate. These models invoke new heavy quarks that interact strongly with the Standard Model bringing them…
Extensions of the Standard Model with extra neutral currents due to additional anomalous abelian gauge factors are considered. We summarize the main features of the effective action associated to these theories. They are characterized by an…
We show that in heterotic string theory -- and dual corners of the landscape including Type I string theory -- the QCD axion mass is bounded from below by $m_a \gtrsim 0.5$ neV, a direct consequence of the model-independent axion whose…
We motivate a relation between dark energy and the scale of new physics in weakly coupled string theory. This mixing between infrared and ultraviolet physics leads to a unique corner for real-world phenomenology: barring fine-tunings, we…
We propose a grand unified model in five dimensions that addresses the strong CP problem. In this framework, the boundary conditions that break the unified gauge group into the Standard Model gauge group simultaneously explain the mass…
We study a coupled quintessence model in which the interaction with the dark matter sector is a function of the quintessence potential. Such a coupling can arise from a field dependent mass term for the dark matter field. The dynamical…