We explore some particle physics implications of the growing evidence for a helical primordial magnetic field (PMF). From the interactions of magnetic monopoles and the PMF, we derive an upper bound on the monopole number density, $n(t_0) < 1 \times 10^{-20}~{\rm cm}^{-3}$, which is a "primordial" analog of the Parker bound for the survival of galactic magnetic fields. Our bound is weaker than existing constraints, but it is derived under independent assumptions. We also show how improved measurements of the PMF at different redshifts can lead to further constraints on magnetic monopoles. Axions interact with the PMF due to the $φ{\bf E}\cdot {\bf B}$ interaction. Including the effects of the cosmological plasma, we find that the helicity of the PMF is a source for the axion field. Although the magnitude of the source is small for the PMF, it could potentially be of interest in astrophysical environments. Finally we apply constraints on the neutrino magnetic dipole moment that arise from requiring successful big bang nucleosynthesis in the presence of a PMF, and using the suggested strength $\sim 10^{-14}~{\rm G}$ and coherence length $\sim 10~{\rm Mpc}$ we find $μ_ν\lesssim 10^{-16} μ_B$.
Taken individually, magnetic monopoles and axions are both well-motivated aspects of physics beyond the Standard Model. We demonstrate that by virtue of the Witten effect, their interplay is furthermore nontrivial; monopoles break the corresponding axial symmetries explicitly and result in an axion potential lacking the usual instanton-derived exponential suppression factor. As axions are distinguished by their extremely weak interactions, any regime where their effects are enhanced may be of interest. As an application of these findings, we demonstrate that a phenomenologically acceptable pop…
Hidden monopole is a plausible dark matter candidate due to its stability, but its direct experimental search is extremely difficult due to feeble interactions with the standard model particles in the minimal form. Then, we introduce an axion, $a$, connecting the hidden monopole and the standard model particles and examine the current limits and future prospects of direct dark matter searches and beam-dump experiments. We find two parameter regions around $m_a = {\cal O}(10)$ MeV, $f_a = {\cal O}(10^{5})$ GeV and $m_a = {\cal O}(100)$ MeV, $f_a = {\cal O}(10^{4})$ GeV where monopole dark matte…
We are discussing some aspects of the magnetic monopoles and cosmic strings interactions with axion domain walss and membranes. The monopole moving through an axion domain wall is transformed into a monopole bag - the state with a dyon quantum number, but smaller mass. In the case of an axion membrane the passing monopole excites the chiral charged state at the membrane boundary. It will be shown that if cosmic string intersects an axion domain wall there will be $θ= π$, i.e. maximal $CP$-violation inside the string. Strings carrying the flux of the $Z$-boson field become the sources of the ba…
We show that monopoles can be pair produced by cosmological magnetic fields in the early universe. The pair production gives rise to relic monopoles, and at the same time induces a self-screening of the magnetic fields. By studying these effects we derive limits on the monopole mass, and also on the initial amplitude of primordial magnetic fields. Monopoles of GUT scale mass can even be produced if primordial magnetic fields exist at sufficiently high redshifts.
We propose a simple mechanism to suppress axion isocurvature fluctuations using hidden sector magnetic monopoles. This allows for the Peccei-Quinn scale to be of order the unification scale consistently with high scale inflation.
The string theory predicts many light fields called moduli and axions, which cause a cosmological problem due to the overproduction of their coherent oscillation after inflation. One of the prominent solutions is an adiabatic suppression mechanism, which, however, is non-trivial to achieve in the case of axions because it necessitates a large effective mass term which decreases as a function of time. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we provide an analytic method to calculate the cosmological abundance of coherent oscillation in a general situation under the adiabatic suppression me…
We study the Witten effect of hidden monopoles on the QCD axion dynamics, and show that its abundance as well as isocurvature perturbations can be significantly suppressed if there is a sufficient amount of hidden monopoles. When the hidden monopoles make up a significant fraction of dark matter, the Witten effect suppresses the abundance of axion with the decay constant smaller than $10^{12}$ GeV. The cosmological domain wall problem of the QCD axion can also be avoided, relaxing the upper bound on the decay constant when the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is spontaneously broken after inflation.
We present new bounds on the cosmic abundance of magnetic monopoles based on the survival of primordial magnetic fields during the reheating and radiation-dominated epochs. The new bounds can be stronger than the conventional Parker bound from galactic magnetic fields, as well as bounds from direct searches. We also apply our bounds to monopoles produced by the primordial magnetic fields themselves through the Schwinger effect, and derive additional conditions for the survival of the primordial fields.
Dark Matter and Baryon Asymmetry from Monopole-Axion Interactions
Indiana University（印第安纳大学）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory（费米国家加速器实验室）；Boston University（波士顿大学）；Harvard University（哈佛大学）
We show that axions interacting with abelian gauge fields obtain a potential from loops of magnetic monopoles. This is a consequence of the Witten effect: the axion field causes the monopoles to acquire an electric charge and alters their energy spectrum. The axion potential can also be understood as a type of instanton effect due to a Euclidean monopole worldline winding around its dyon collective coordinate. We calculate this effect, which has features in common with both nonabelian instantons and Euclidean brane instantons. To provide consistency checks, we argue that this axion potential v…
We show that an axionlike field coupled to a new confining gauge group can generate the primordial density perturbation in the post-inflation universe. The axion decay constant and strong coupling scale are uniquely determined by observations of the density perturbation, which further suggest a temporal deconfinement of the gauge group after inflation. The resulting temperature-dependent axion potential, together with its periodic nature, gives rise to the red-tilted density perturbation, with a positive local-type non-Gaussianity of order unity.
In the axion monodromy inflation, the inflation is driven by the axion with super-Planckian field values in a monomial potential with superimposed sinusoidal modulations. The coupling of the axion to massless gauge fields can induce copious particle production during inflation, resulting in large non-Gaussian curvature perturbation that leads to the formation of primordial black holes. In this paper, we explore the parameter space in the axion monodromy inflation model that favors the formation of primordial black holes with masses ranging from $10^8$ grams to $20$ solar masses. We also study …
We propose a scenario where the spontaneous breakdown of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry leads to monopole production. Both the axion and the monopole contribute to dark matter, and the Witten effect on the axion mass is a built-in feature. In the KSVZ-type axion model, seemingly different vacua are actually connected by the hidden gauge symmetry, which makes the axionic string unstable and separate into two Alice strings. The Alice string is attached to a single domain wall due to the QCD instanton effect, solving the domain-wall problem. This is in the same spirit of the Lazarides-Shafi mechanism,…
We reconsider entropy arguments which have been previously argued to support the idea that the dark matter constituents are primordial black holes with many solar masses. It has recently been shown that QCD axions which solve the strong CP problem may have masses $m_a$ in the extended range $10^{-3}eV > m_a > 10^{-33} eV$. Ultralight axions provide so many degrees of freedom that their entropy can exceed that of primordial black holes. This suggests that ultralight axions are more suited than primordial black holes to be constituents of dark matter.
We suggest the new feature of primordial gravitational waves sourced by the axion-gauge couplings, whose forms are motivated by the dimensional reduction of the form field in the string theory. In our inflationary model, as an inflaton we adopt two types of axion, dubbed the model-independent axion and the model-dependent axion, which couple with two gauge groups with different sign combination each other. Due to these forms both polarization modes of gauge fields are amplified and enhance both helicies of tensor modes during inflation. We point out the possibility that a primordial blue-tilte…
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 through axion-photon conversion in the presence of primordial magnetic fields, and derive tight constraints on the combination of the axion-photon coupling and the primordial magnetic field.
We propose a model for the QCD axion which is realized through a coupling of the Peccei-Quinn scalar field to magnetically charged fermions at high energies. We show that the axion of this model solves the strong CP problem and then integrate out heavy magnetic monopoles using the Schwinger proper time method. We find that the model discussed yields axion couplings to the Standard Model which are drastically different from the ones calculated within the KSVZ/DFSZ-type models, so that large part of the corresponding parameter space can be probed by various projected experiments. Moreover, the a…
Primordial black holes (PBHs) are known to be produced from collapsing cosmic defects such as domain walls and strings. In this paper we show how PBHs are produced in monopole-string networks.
We argue that the existence of the cold dark matter is explained by primordial black holes.We show that a significant number of primordial black holes can be formed in an axion-like curvaton model, in which the highly blue-tilted power spectrum of primordial curvature perturbations is achieved.It is found that the produced black holes with masses $\sim 10^{20} -10^{38} \mathrm{g}$ account for the present cold dark matter.We also argue the possibility of forming the primordial black holes with mass $\sim 10^5 M_{\odot}$ as seeds of the supermassive black holes.
We propose a scenario in which a strong Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking in the early universe results in large inhomogeneities of the initial QCD axion field value, leading to the formation of very dense axion bubbles. Some of the axion bubbles subsequently collapse into primordial black holes (PBHs). The spatially homogeneous part of the QCD axion explains dark matter of the universe, while the PBHs arising from the axion bubbles can explain the LIGO events or the seed of supermassive black holes. Interestingly, the mass of PBH is determined by the axion decay constant; for $f_a = 10^{17}…
We calculate the rate for thermal production of axions and saxions via scattering of quarks, gluons, squarks, and gluinos in the primordial supersymmetric plasma. Systematic field theoretical methods such as hard thermal loop resummation are applied to obtain a finite result in a gauge-invariant way that is consistent to leading order in the strong gauge coupling. We calculate the thermally produced yield and the decoupling temperature for both axions and saxions. For the generic case in which saxion decays into axions are possible, the emitted axions can constitute extra radiation already pri…
Production of axionlike particles (ALPs) by primordial magnetic fields may have significant impacts on cosmology. We discuss the production of ALPs in the presence of the primordial magnetic fields. We find a region of the ALP mass and photon coupling which realizes the observed properties of the dark matter with appropriate initial conditions for the magnetic fields. This region may be interesting in light of recent indications for the 3.5 keV lines from galaxy clusters. For a small axion mass, a region of previously allowed parameter spaces is excluded by overproduction of ALPs as a hot/warm…
We consider a general class of axion models, including the QCD and string axion, in which the PQ symmetry is broken before or during inflation. Assuming the axion is the dominant component of the dark matter, we discuss axion star formation in virialized dark minihalos around primordial black holes through gravitational Bose-Einstein condensation. We determine the conditions for minihalos to kinetically produce axion stars before galaxy formation. Today, we expect up to $\sim 10^{17}$ ($\sim 10^9$) axion stars in a radius of 100 parsecs around the Sun for the case of the QCD (string) axion.
We discuss a possible connection between the recent NANOGrav results and the primordial black holes (PBHs) for the LIGO-Virgo events. In particular, we focus on the axion-like curvaton model, which provides a sizable amount of PBHs and GWs induced by scalar perturbations around the NANOGrav frequency range. The inevitable non-Gaussianity of this model suppresses the induced GWs associated with PBHs for the LIGO-Virgo events to be compatible with the NANOGrav results. We show that the axion-like curvaton model can account for PBHs for the LIGO-Virgo events and the NANOGrav results simultaneousl…
We study the formation of primordial black holes (PBHs) from the collapse of closed domain walls (DWs) which naturally arise in QCD axion models near the QCD scale together with the main string-wall network. The size distribution of the closed DWs is determined by percolation theory, from which we further obtain PBH mass distribution and abundance. Various observational constraints on PBH abundance in turn also constrain axion parameters. Our model prefers axion mass around the meV scale ($f_{a}\sim 10^{9}$ GeV). The corresponding PBHs are in the sublunar-mass window $10^{20}$-$10^{22}$ g (i.e…
We discuss how in supersymmetric models with D and F-flat directions, a primordial monopole flux of order 10^{-16} - 10^{-18} cm^{-2} sec^{-1} sr^{-1} can coexist with the observed baryon asymmetry. A modified Affleck-Dine scenario yields the desired asymmetry if the monopoles are superheavy (~ 10^{13}-10^{18} GeV). For lighter monopoles with masses ~ 10^{9}-10^{12} GeV, the baryon asymmetry can arise via TeV scale leptogenesis.
We consider an axion cloud around a black hole with background magnetic fields. We calculate the decay rate of the axion cloud due to the axion-photon conversion associated with the axion-photon coupling. For simplicity, we consider the situation where the axion configuration is dominated by a solution for the eigenvalue equation equivalent to that for the Hydrogen atom, and the coupling term can be evaluated by a successive perturbation method. For the monopole background, we find the decay rate of the axion cloud is given by $\sim q^2κ^2(GM)^5μ^8$, where $μ$, $M$, $G$, $κ$ and $q$ are the ax…
An absorption dip in the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background observed by the EDGES experiment suggests an unexplained reduction of the hydrogen spin temperature at cosmic redshift z ~ 17. The mass of dark-matter axions could correspond to the hyperfine splitting of 5.9 micro-eV, between the triplet (H1) and singlet (H0) state. We calculate the rate for a+ H0 <-> H1 in two ways, and find that it is orders of magnitude smaller than the CMB-mediated transition rate, so irrelevant. As a result, this process cannot be used to rule in or out dark matter axions of mass = hyperfine splitting. …
We propose a mechanism to generate Primordial Black Holes (PBHs) which is independent of cosmological inflation and occurs slightly below the QCD phase transition. Our setup relies on the collapse of long-lived string-domain wall networks and is naturally realized in QCD axion models with domain wall number $N_{DW}>1$ and Peccei-Quinn symmetry broken after inflation. In our framework, dark matter is mostly composed of axions in the meV mass range along with a small fraction, $Ω_{\text{PBH}} \gtrsim 10^{-6} Ω_{\text{CDM}} $ of heavy $M \sim 10^4-10^7 M_\odot$ PBHs. The latter could play a role …
In the presence of primordial magnetic fields the oscillating cosmic axion field drives an oscillating electric field. The ensuing dissipation of axions is found to be inversely proportional to the conductivity of the primordial plasma. This counterintuitive result is essentially equivalent to ``Zeno's paradox'' or the ``watched-pot effect'' of quantum mechanics. It implies that the standard predictions of the cosmic axion density remain unaltered even if primordial magnetic fields are strong.
Lattice study of primordial black hole formation in bumpy axion inflation
Kavli IPMU (WPI), UTIAS, University of Tokyo（东京大学）；ICRR, University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Physics Division, Faculty of Science, Kanagawa University（神奈川大学）；RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS), RIKEN（理化学研究所）；Department of Physics, Tohoku University（东北大学）
We study the process of primordial black hole (PBH) formation at the beginning of radiation era for the cosmological scenario in which the inflaton is a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson (axion) and there is a coupling of the inflaton with some gauge field. In this model inflation is accompanied by the gauge quanta production and a strong rise of the curvature power spectrum amplitude at small scales (along with non-Gaussianity) is predicted. We show that data on PBH searches can be used for a derivation of essential constraints on the model parameters in such an axion inflation scenario. We compar…
We calculate the rate for thermal production of axions via scattering of quarks and gluons in the primordial quark-gluon plasma. To obtain a finite result in a gauge-invariant way that is consistent to leading order in the strong gauge coupling, we use systematic field theoretical methods such as hard thermal loop resummation and the Braaten-Yuan prescription. The thermally produced yield, the decoupling temperature, and the density parameter are computed for axions with a mass below 10 meV. In this regime, with a Peccei-Quinn scale above 6x10^8 GeV, the associated axion population can still b…
We consider non-supersymmetric GUT inflation models in which intermediate mass monopoles may survive inflation because of the restricted number of e-foldings experienced by the accompanying symmetry breaking. Thus, an observable flux of primordial magnetic monopoles, comparable to or a few orders below the Parker limit, may be present in the galaxy. The mass scale associated with the intermediate symmetry breaking is $10^{13}$ GeV for an observable flux level, with the corresponding monopoles an order of magnitude or so heavier. Examples based on $SO(10)$ and $E_6$ yield such intermediate mass…
We revise primordial black hole (PBH) formation in the axion-like curvaton model and investigate whether PBHs formed in this model can be the origin of the gravtitational wave (GW) signals detected by the Advanced LIGO. In this model, small-scale curvature perturbations with large amplitude are generated, which is essential for PBH formation. On the other hand, large curvature perturbations also become a source of primordial GWs by their second-order effects. Severe constraints are imposed on such GWs by pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments. We also check the consistency of the model with the…
We study the prospects of detection at terrestrial and space interferometers, as well as at pulsar timing array experiments, of a stochastic gravitational wave background which can be produced in models of axion inflation. This potential signal, and the development of these experiments, open a new window on inflation on scales much smaller than those currently probed with Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure measurements. The sourced signal generated in axion inflation is an ideal candidate for such searches, since it naturally grows at small scales, and it has specific proper…
If primordial black holes (PBHs) had come to dominate the energy density of the early Universe when oscillations in the axion field began, we show that the relic abundance and expected mass range of the QCD axion would be greatly modified. Since the QCD axion is a potential candidate for dark matter (DM), we refer to it as the DM axion. We predominantly explore PBHs in the mass range $(10^6 - 5\times 10^8)\,$g. We investigate the relation between the relic abundance of DM axions and the parameter space of PBHs. We numerically solve the set of Boltzmann equations, that governs the cosmological …
We study the evolution of axions interacting with primordial magnetic fields (PMFs) starting just from the QCD phase transition in the expanding universe. This interaction is owing to the Primakoff effect. Adopting the zero mode approximation for axions, we derive the system of equations for axions and magnetic fields, where the expansion of the universe and the spectra of magnetic fields are accounted for exactly. We find that the contribution of the Primakoff effect to the dynamics of axions and magnetic fields is rather weak. It confirms some previous estimates leading to analogous conclusi…
We present a solution to the cosmological problem encountered in (supersymmetric) grand unified theories due to copious monopole production at the end of hybrid inflation. By employing thermal inflation ``driven'' by the U(1) axion symmetry, the superheavy monopole flux can be naturally suppressed to values that should be accessible to dedicated large scale experiments. The U(1) axion symmetry also helps generate the right magnitude for the mu term of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. An important by-product is the predicted existence of stable or very long-living fermions possessing …
LIGO-Virgo collaboration has found black holes as heavy as $M \sim 30M_\odot$ through the detections of the gravitational waves emitted during their mergers. Primordial black holes (PBHs) produced by inflation could be an origin of such events. While it is tempting to presume that these PBHs constitute all Dark Matter (DM), there exists a number of constraints for PBHs with $\mathcal{O} (10) M_\odot$ which contradict with the idea of PBHs as all DM. Also, it is known that weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) that is a common DM candidate is almost impossible to coexist with PBHs. These o…
