English

Axion dark matter from topological defects

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2015-08-12 v3 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

The cosmological scenario where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken after inflation is investigated. In this scenario, topological defects such as strings and domain walls produce a large number of axions, which contribute to the cold dark matter of the universe. The previous estimations of the cold dark matter abundance are updated and refined based on the field-theoretic simulations with improved grid sizes. The possible uncertainties originated in the numerical calculations are also discussed. It is found that axions can be responsible for the cold dark matter in the mass range ma=(0.81.3)×104eVm_a=(0.8-1.3)\times 10^{-4}\mathrm{eV} for the models with the domain wall number NDW=1N_{\rm DW}=1, and maO(104102)eVm_a\approx\mathcal{O}(10^{-4}-10^{-2})\mathrm{eV} with a mild tuning of parameters for the models with NDW>1N_{\rm DW}>1. Such higher mass ranges can be probed in future experimental studies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1412.0789,
  title  = {Axion dark matter from topological defects},
  author = {Masahiro Kawasaki and Ken'ichi Saikawa and Toyokazu Sekiguchi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1412.0789},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

32 pages, 9 figures; v2: Corresponds to version published in PRD; v3: Estimation of the mean energy of radiated axions is corrected, and some results are modified slightly. See footnotes 6 and 10 for details. This version is more updated than published one

R2 v1 2026-06-22T07:17:48.226Z