Related papers: Relaxing Axions
We propose a toy model of Dark Energy in which the degrees of freedom currently dominating the energy density of the universe are described by a pseudo-scalar "axion field" linearly coupled to the Pontryagin density, $ \text{tr}(F \wedge…
We investigate the production of axion quanta during the early universe evolution of an axion-like field rolling down a wiggly potential. We compute the growth of quantum fluctuations and their back-reaction on the homogeneous zero-mode. We…
A new mechanism for producing axion dark matter is proposed. By invoking low-scale inflation and a kinetic mixing between the axion and the inflaton, it is shown that the axion is driven to a field point slightly displaced from the…
In this work we estimate the radius and the mass of a self-gravitating system made of axions. The quantum axion field satisfies the Klein-Gordon equation in a curved space-time and the metric components of this space-time are solutions to…
It is widely believed that string theory easily allows for a QCD axion in the cosmologically favoured mass range. The required small decay constant, $f_a\ll M_P$, can be implemented by using a large compactification volume. This points to…
The principles of General Relativity allow for a non-vanishing cosmological constant, which can possibly be interpreted at least partially in terms of quantum-fluctuations of matter fields. Depending on sign and magnitude it can cause…
We consider a dynamical approach to the cosmological constant. There is a scalar field with a potential whose minimum occurs at a generic, but negative, value for the vacuum energy, and it has a non-standard kinetic term whose coefficient…
Vacuum decay in de Sitter space is a process of great physical interest, as it allows to rule out cosmological models in the early and current Universe. Its rate may be described in terms of an instanton in Euclidean space called bounce and…
In theories of axion dark matter with large axion decay constant, temperature variations in the CMB are extremely sensitive to perturbations in the initial axion field, allowing one to place a lower bound on the total amount of inflation.…
We show that the inclusion of an axion-like effective potential in the construction of a self-gravitating system made of scalar fields leads to a decrease on its compactness when the value of the self-interaction coupling constant is…
We consider a (1+1) dimensional scalar field theory that supports oscillons, which are localized, oscillatory, stable solutions to nonlinear equations of motion. We study this theory in an expanding background and show that oscillons now…
A mechanism for suppressing the cosmological constant is described, using a superconducting analogy in which fermions coupled to gravitons are in an unstable false vauum. The coupling of the fermions to gravitons and a screened attractive…
We find that a fuzzy dark matter background and the mG scale magnetic field in the galactic center can give rise to a radiation with a very large energy release. The frequency of the radiation field is the same as the frequency of the…
A cosmic axion, via the electromagnetic anomaly, induces an oscillating electric dipole for the electron of frequency $m_a$ and strength $\sim$(few)$\times 10^{-32}$ e-cm, two orders of magnitude above the nucleon, and within a few orders…
An alternative model describing the dynamics of a flat Universe without cosmological constant and allowing a gradual change of c with time is proposed. New relationships of redshift vs. distance and cosmic background radiation temperature…
Axion-like particles are a well-motivated dark matter candidate that can form a condensate with low momentum and high occupation number. In the presence of dark radiation, this condensate loses energy, naturally increasing the energy…
We present an unconventional approach for addressing the old cosmological constant (CC) problem in a class of F(R,G) models of modified gravity. For a CC of arbitrary size and sign the corresponding cosmological evolution follows an…
Understanding the late-time acceleration of the Universe is one of the major challenges in cosmology today. In this paper, we present a new scalar field model corresponding to a generalised axion-like potential. In fact, this model can be…
We demonstrate that the strict upper bounds on the energy scale of inflation and on the tensor-to-scalar ratio can be somewhat relaxed if we assume that - after an initial period of slow rolling when scales probed today in CMB experiments…
A number of proposed and ongoing experiments search for axion dark matter with a mass nearing the limit set by small scale structure (${\cal O} ( 10 ^{ - 21 } {\rm eV} ) $). We consider the late universe cosmology of these models, showing…