I propose a new axionic solution to the strong CP problem which involves a hypothetical vector-like quark(s) in a high-colour representation of the conventional QCD. There are two distinct scenarios. If the current mass of the exotic quark is zero, the strong CP phase can be trivially rotated away. The high-colour quark is `hidden' in various bounds states, the lightest being the composite axion field, with properties similar to the standard invisible axion. If the high-colour quark acquire a non-zero current mass due to the spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, the composite axion can be heavy, while the strong CP phase is still cancelling out in the vacuum. The phenomenology and cosmological implications of the heavy composite axion differs drastically from the standard invisible axion.
We consider the strong dynamics associated with a composite Higgs model that simultaneously produces dynamical axions and solves the strong CP problem. The strong dynamics arises from a new $Sp$ or $SU(4)$ hypercolor gauge group containing QCD colored hyperfermions that confines at a high scale. The hypercolor global symmetry is weakly gauged by the Standard Model electroweak gauge group and an enlarged color group, $SU(N+3) \times SU(N)'$. When hyperfermion condensates form, they not only lead to an $SU(5)/SO(5)$ composite Higgs model but also spontaneously break the enlarged color group to $…
We consider a chiral gauge theory from which light composite Dirac neutrinos dynamically emerge, augmented by a QCD axion to solve the strong CP problem. We show that an interplay between the composite sector and the axion can also simultaneously lead to successful baryogenesis and generate a correct dark matter abundance via "co-genesis" without contradicting present constraints. We predict $ΔN_{\rm eff} \geq 0.14$ and $m_a$ in the range $O(1)\>{\rm μeV}$--$O(10)\>{\rm meV}$, which can be firmly tested by upcoming CMB experiments and axion searches.
Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学汤川研究所）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院）；SISSA International School for Advanced Studies（国际高等研究院）；INFN, Sezione di Trieste（意大利国家核物理研究所的里雅斯特分部）；IFPU（伊萨尔利亚基础物理研究所）
Quantum gravity introduces a new source of the combined parity (CP) violation in gauge theories. We argue that this new CP violation gets bundled with the strong CP violation through the coloured gravitational instantons. Consequently, the standard axion solution to the strong CP problem is compromised. Further, we argue that the ultimate solution to the strong CP problem must involve at least one additional axion particle.
The spontaneous breakdown of the scale, the chiral and the superconformal symmetries for a hidden $SU(N)$ gauge group is studied in an effective lagrangean approach. The relevant low-energy degrees of freedom are taken to be the composite Goldstone particles associated with these three broken symmetries. Supersymmetry is spontaneously broken in the large $N$ limit and soft breaking terms in the observable sector are generated, together with nonrenormalisable Nambu-Jona-Lasinio type interactions.
The Tera-Z phase of future $e^+ e^-$ colliders, FCC-ee and CepC, is a goldmine for exploring $Z$ portal physics. We focus on axion-like particles (ALPs) that can be produced via $Z$ decays with a monochromatic photon. As a template model, we consider composite Higgs models with a light pseudo-scalar that couples through the Wess-Zumino-Witten term to the electroweak gauge bosons. For both photophilic and photophobic cases, we show that the Tera-Z can probe composite scales up to $100$s of TeV, well beyond the capability of the LHC and current precision physics. Our results also apply to generi…
Hidden theories coupled to the SM may provide emergent axions, that are composites/bound-states of the hidden fields. This is motivated by paradigms emerging from the AdS/CFT correspondence but it is a more general phenomenon. We explore the general setup and find that UV-sourced interactions of instanton densities give rise to emergent axions in the IR. We study the general properties of such axions and argue that they are generically different from both fundamental and composite axions that have been studied so far.
A global $U(1)_\text{PQ}$ symmetry is protected from gravitational effects in the s-confining $SU(N)^k$ product group theory with $A+4Q +N\overline{Q}$ matter. If the $SU(4)$ family symmetry is gauged and an appropriate tree-level superpotential is added, then the dynamically generated superpotential spontaneously breaks $SU(4)\times U(1)_\text{PQ} \rightarrow SU(3)_c$ and produces a QCD axion. Small values of the $CP$-violating $θ$ parameter are then possible without any fine-tuning, as long as the product group is suitably large. By introducing a second copy of the s-confining $SU(N)$ produc…
In this paper, we construct a supersymmetric composite axion (c-axion) model based on the gauge group $SU(N)\times SU(M)$, which is one possible physical application of the N=1 duality. The dual of SU(M) is interpreted as the color gauge group. We illustrate the existence of c-axion for the case of one dual quark in the dual gauge group $SU(\tilde M)$.
We present several models where the QCD axion arises accidentally. Confining gauge theories can generate axion candidates whose properties are uniquely determined by the quantum numbers of the new fermions under the Standard Model. The Peccei-Quinn symmetry can emerge accidentally if the gauge theory is chiral. We generalise previous constructions in a unified framework. In some cases these models can be understood as the deconstruction of 5-dimensional gauge theories where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is protected by locality but more general constructions are possible.
We discuss the idea that the model-independent (MI) axion of string theory is the source of quintessential dark energy. The scenario is completed with a composite QCD axion from hidden sector squark condensation that could serve as dark matter candidate. The mechanism relies on the fact that the hidden sector anomaly contribution to the composite axion is much smaller than the QCD anomaly term. This intuitively surprising scenario is based on the fact that below the hidden sector scale $Λ_h$ there are many light hidden sector quarks. Simply, by counting engineering dimensions the hidden sector…
Composite axion scenarios offer a robust field theoretic justification for the existence of a Peccei-Quinn symmetry of high quality. We present a new class of realizations that are naturally embedded in Grand-Unified Theories, retain asymptotic freedom for all gauge groups, and protect the axion symmetry up to operators of dimension 12. Our setup leads to a number of distinctive signatures at low energies. First, additional composite scalars are predicted; some of these are viable dark matter candidates for values of the axion decay constant that are too low for the QCD axion abundance to be r…
We propose that the 750 GeV resonance, presumably observed in the early LHC Run 2 data, could be a heavy composite axion that results from condensation of a hypothetical quark in a high-colour representation of conventional QCD. The model, motivated by a recently proposed solution to the strong CP problem, is very economical and is essentially defined by the properties of the additional quark - its colour charge, hypercharge and mass. The axion mass and its coupling to two photons (via axial anomaly) can be computed in terms of these parameters. The axion is predominantly produced via photon f…
The effects of possible explicit violation of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry responsible for the solution of the strong CP problem are studied in supersymmetric models. It is shown that automatic models with an abelian $U(1)$ gauge symmetry are easy to construct both in the context of fundamental and composite models of axions. It is argued that it is preferable to use abelian rather than nonabelian gauge groups in order to obtains automatic symmetries. A composite model with no exact $R$ symmetry is studied and it is found that, unlike common belief, supersymmetry is broken.
We introduce a class of composite axion models that provide a natural solution to the strong CP problem, and possibly account for the observed dark matter abundance. The QCD axion arises as a composite Nambu-Goldstone boson (NGB) from the dynamics of a chiral gauge theory with a strongly-interacting and confining SU(N) factor and a weakly-interacting U(1), with no fundamental scalar fields. The Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is accidental and all the mass scales are generated dynamically. We analyze specific models where the PQ symmetry is broken only by operators of dimension 12 or higher. We als…
ATLAS and CMS observe deviations from the expected background in the diphoton invariant mass searches of new resonances around 750 GeV. We show that a simple realization in terms of a new pseudoscalar state can accommodate the observations. The model leads to further footprints that can be soon observed. The new state can be interpreted both as an axion or as a {highly natural} composite state arising from minimal models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. We further show how to disentangle the two scenarios. Beyond the possible explanation of the diphoton excess the results show that …
We explore a new framework that furnishes a mechanism to simultaneously address the electroweak naturalness problem and the axion high quality problem. The framework is based on a doubly composite dynamics where the second confinement takes place after the CFT encounters the first confinement and the theory flows into another conformal fixed point. For a calculable example, we present a holographic dual description of the 4D model via a warped extra dimension model with three 3-branes. While the hierarchy problem is taken cared of by the localization of the Higgs fields on the TeV brane just a…
In theories with no fundamental scalars, one gauge group can become strong at a large scale Lambda and spontaneously break a global symmetry, producing the Higgs and the axion as composite pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons. We show how KSVZ and DFSZ axion models can be naturally realised. The assumption Lambda around 10^{11} GeV is phenomenologically favoured because: a) The axion solves the QCD theta problem and provides the observed DM abundance; b) The observed Higgs mass is generated via RGE effects from a small Higgs quartic coupling at the compositeness scale, provided that the Higgs mass te…
We show that QCD instantons can generate large effects at small length scales in the ultraviolet in standard composite Higgs models that utilise partial compositeness. This has important implications for possible solutions of the strong CP problem in these models. First we show that in the simplest known UV completions of composite Higgs models, if an axion is also present, it can have a mass much larger than the usual QCD axion. Even more remarkable is the case where there are no axions, but the strong CP problem can be solved by generating the up quark mass entirely from the contribution of …
The strong CP problem is a compelling motivation for physics beyond the Standard Model. The most popular solutions invoke a global Peccei-Quinn symmetry, but are challenged by quantum gravitational corrections which are thought to be incompatible with global symmetries, arguing that realistic theories contain additional structure. We explore a construction in which the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is protected to arbitrary order by virtue of a supersymmetric, confining $SU(N)_L \times SU(N) \times SU(N)_R \times U(1)_X$ product gauge group, achieving $\barθ< 10^{-11}$ for an $SU(5)$ model with $f_a \…
We present a 5D axion-neutrino model that explains the Standard Model fermion mass hierarchy and flavor structure, while simultaneously generating a high-quality axion. The axion and right-handed neutrinos transform under a 5D Peccei-Quinn gauge symmetry, and have highly suppressed profiles on the UV brane where the symmetry is explicitly broken. This setup allows neutrinos to be either Dirac, or Majorana with hierarchically small sterile neutrino masses. The axion decay constant originates from the IR scale, which in the holographically dual 4D description corresponds to the confinement scale…
We attempt to identify a phenomenologically viable solution to the strong $CP$ problem in which the axion is composed entirely out of Standard Model fermion species. The axion consists predominantly of the $η'$ meson with a minuscule admixture of a pseudoscalar bilinear composite of neutrinos, $η_ν$. The Peccei-Quinn symmetry is an axial symmetry that acts on the up quark and the neutrino species and is spontaneously broken by the QCD condensate of quarks as well as the condensate of neutrinos triggered by chiral gravitational anomaly. The up-quark mass is spontaneously generated by the neutri…
Pecci-Quinn (PQ) symmetry breaking by perturbative dynamics would suffer from a hierarchy problem, just like the electroweak symmetry breaking in the standard model. The dynamics of the axion, associated with the PQ symmetry breaking, would also involve a triviality problem. We provide a paradigm to resolve those two problems potentially existing in the PQ symmetry breaking scenario, with keeping successful axion relaxation for the QCD strong CP phase. The proposed theory includes an axicolor dynamics with the axicolored fermions partially gauged by the QCD color, and is shown to be governed b…
Long-lived, colour-triplet scalars are a generic prediction of unnatural, or split, composite Higgs models where the spontaneous global-symmetry breaking scale $f \gtrsim 10$ TeV and an unbroken $SU(5)$ symmetry is preserved. Since the triplet scalars are pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons they are split from the much heavier composite-sector resonances and are the lightest exotic, coloured states. This makes them ideal to search for at colliders. Due to discrete symmetries the triplet scalar decays via a dimension-six term and given the large suppression scale $f$ is often metastable. We show that…
Recently, the LHC collaborations, ATLAS and CMS, have announced an excess in the diphoton channel with local significance of about $3\,σ$ around an invariant mass distribution of $\sim 750$ GeV, after analyzing new data collected at centre-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s} = 13~{\rm TeV}$. We present a possible physical interpretation of such a signature, within the framework of a minimal UV-complete model with a massive singlet pseudo-scalar state $a$ that couples to a new TeV-scale coloured vector-like fermion $F$, whose hypercharge quantum number is a non-zero integer. The pseudo-scalar state $…
We study a holographic realisation of a composite Higgs model with an SO(6)/SO(5) symmetry breaking coset in which the top sector includes colour-neutral twin-partners that reduce the sensitivity of the Higgs mass to the cut-off. Key to this neutral-naturalness mechanism is a Z2 symmetry that leaves the Yukawa couplings to the Higgs boson invariant under an exchange of the top quark and twin top quark, but the symmetry structure of the model means that the Z2 symmetry is not present in the gauge boson couplings to the Higgs. Within the calculable framework of holography we construct and study …
We discuss conditions that should be satisfied by axion models for solving the strong CP problem. It has been observed that Planck scale effects may render the axion models ineffective if there are gauge invariant operators of dimension less than 10 which break explicitly the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry. We argue that only those operators formed of fields which have vacuum expectation values are dangerous. Supersymmetric axion models fail to prevent even this restricted class of operators. Furthermore, the models that relate the PQ scale and the supersymmetry breaking scale are particularly sen…
In composite Higgs models light fermionic top partners often play an important role in obtaining a 126 GeV Higgs mass. The presence of these top partners implies that coloured vector mesons, or massive gluon partners, most likely exist. Since the coupling between the top partners and gluon partners can be large there are then sizeable two-loop contributions to the composite Higgs mass. We compute the radiative correction to the Higgs mass from a gluon partner in the minimal composite Higgs model and show that the Higgs mass is in fact reduced. This allows the top partner masses to be increased…
We study a number of realizations of axions existing in a multi-`throat' generalization of the warped throat geometry of a Randall-Sundrum slice of $AdS_5$. As argued by previous authors, the problem of generating a suitable, phenomenologically allowed Peccei-Quinn scale is simply and elegantly solved by the warping. In compactifications with two or more throats it is possible to simultaneously solve the Standard Model hierarchy problem by the Randall-Sundrum mechanism while implementing interesting warped axion models. The constructions discussed are related to holographic duals of previously…
We present a scale invariant extension of the Standard model allowing for the Kim-Shifman-Vainstein-Zakharov (KSVZ) axion solution of the strong CP problem in QCD. We add the minimal number of new particles and show that the Peccei-Quinn scalar might be identified with the complex dilaton field. Scale invariance, together with the Peccei-Quinn symmetry, is broken spontaneously near the Planck scale before inflation, which is driven by the Standard Model Higgs field. We present a set of general conditions which makes this scenario viable and an explicit example of an effective theory possessing…
We explore whether the axion which solves the strong CP problem can naturally be much lighter than the canonical QCD axion. The $Z_\mathcal{N}$ symmetry proposed by Hook, with $\mathcal{N}$ mirror and degenerate worlds coexisting in Nature and linked by the axion field, is considered in terms of generic effective axion couplings. We show that the total potential is safely approximated by a single cosine in the large $\mathcal{N}$ limit, and we determine the analytical formula for the exponentially suppressed axion mass. The resulting universal enhancement of all axion interactions relative to …
We present a dynamical (composite) axion model where the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry arises automatically as a consequence of chirality and gauge symmetry. The Standard Model is simply extended by a confining and chiral $SU(5)$ gauge symmetry. The PQ symmetry coincides with a $B-L$ symmetry of the exotic sector. The theory is protected by construction from quantum gravitational corrections stemming from operators with mass dimension lower than nine.
A composite model of the fundamental fermions based on colour preons is discussed. It is found that, if endowed with the pairwise (repulsive/attractive) chromoelectric fields, preons would cohere in a series of structures, resembling by their properties the three generations of the fundamental fermions. The model is self-consistent in the sense that it makes no use of free or experimental input parameters.
We consider two-colour QCD with two flavours of quarks as a possible theory of composite dark matter and use lattice field theory methods to investigate nuclear spectroscopy in the spin $J=0$ and $J=1$ multi-baryon sectors. We find compelling evidence that $J=1$ systems with baryon number $B=2,3$ (and their mixed meson-baryon counterparts) are bound states - the analogues of nuclei in this theory. In addition, we estimate the $σ$-terms of the $J=0$ and $J=1$ single baryon states which are important for the coupling of the theory to scalar currents that may mediate interactions with the visible…
We demonstrate that the chiral gauge flavor $SU(3)_f$ dynamics spontaneously generates the chiral symmetry breaking fermion self energies $Σ(p^2)$ resulting in wide and wild spectra of lepton and quark masses. The Goldstone theorem then necessarily implies: (1) Gauge bosons of gauged chiral symmetries absorb the underlying 'would-be' Nambu-Goldstone (NG) bosons and become massive. Masses are determined by $Σ(p^2)$s of those fermions to which they couple, and by the corresponding gauge coupling constants. (2) Charges of anomalous Abelian chiral fermion currents create composite mixed-parity pse…
The ideas of "local" and "global" colour-singletness are not well understood within QCD. We use a group theoretical technique to project out the partition function for a system of quarks, antiquarks and gluons to a particular representation of the internal symmetry group $SU(3)_c$: colour-singlet, colour-octet and colour 27-plet at finite temperature. For high temperatures and large size it is shown that colour-singlet is degenerate with colour-octet, colour 27-plet states etc. For the composite system it is shown that $SU(3)_c$ appears to be a good symmetry only at low temperatures and at hig…
Predicting the Dark Matter -- Baryon Abundance Ratio
University of Maryland, College Park（马里兰大学帕克分校）；Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor（密歇根大学安娜堡分校李·温伯理论物理中心物理系）
We propose a Clifford algebra approach to chiral symmetry breaking and fermion mass hierarchies in the context of composite Higgs bosons. Standard model fermions are represented by algebraic spinors of six-dimensional binary Clifford algebra, while ternary Clifford algebra-related flavor projection operators control allowable flavor-mixing interactions. There are three composite electroweak Higgs bosons resulted from top quark, tau neutrino, and tau lepton condensations. Each of the three condensations gives rise to masses of four different fermions. The fermion mass hierarchies within these t…
We explore a model based on the classically-scale invariant standard model (SM) with a strongly coupled vector-like dynamics, which is called hypercolor (HC). The scale symmetry is dynamically broken by the vector-like condensation at the TeV scale, so that the SM Higgs acquires the negative mass-squared by the bosonic seesaw mechanism to realize the electroweak symmetry breaking. An elementary pseudoscalar $S$ is introduced to give masses for the composite Nambu-Goldstone bosons (HC pions): the HC pion can be a good target to explore through a diphoton channel at the LHC. As the consequence o…
