We consider a two-component dark matter halo (DMH) of a galaxy containing ultra-light axions (ULA) of different mass. The DMH is described as a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in its ground state. In the mean-field (MF) limit we have derived the integro-differential equations for the spherically symmetrical wave functions of the two DMH components. We studied numerically the radial distribution of the mass density of ULA and constructed the parameters which could be used to distinguish between the two- and one-component DMH. We also discuss an interesting connection between the BEC MF ground state of a one-component DMH and Hawking temperature and entropy of a corresponding Black Hole, and Unruh temperature.
In the present work we study possible time signatures Axion Dark Matter searches employing resonant cavities for various halo models. We study in particular the time dependence of the resonance width (modulation) and possible asymmetries in directional experiments.
AGN jets carry helical magnetic fields, which can affect dark matter if the latter is axionic. This preliminary study shows that, in the presence of strong helical magnetic fields, the nature of the axionic condensate may change and become dark energy. Such dark energy may affect galaxy formation and galactic dynamics, so this possibility should not be ignored when considering axionic dark matter.
We establish a nonlinear version of the SU(N) symmetric theory, which describes self-consistently the interaction between the gravitational, gauge, vector and pseudoscalar (axion) fields. In the context of this theory the SU(N) symmetric multiplet of vector fields is associated with the color aether, the decay of which in the early Universe produced the canonic dynamic aether and the axionic dark matter. The SU(N) symmetric Yang-Mills field, associated with the color aether, forms the source, which transfers the energy of the decaying color aether to the axion field. The nonlinear modification…
In the present work we study possible time dependent effects in Axion Dark Matter searches employing resonant cavities. We find that the width of the resonance, which depends on the axion mean square velocity in the local frame, will show an annual variation due to the motion of the Earth around the sun (modulation). Furthermore, if the experiments become directional, employing suitable resonant cavities, one expects large asymmetries in the observed widths relative to the sun's direction of motion. Due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis, these asymmetries will manifest themselves as…
Axion is a popular candidate for dark matter particles. Axionic dark matter may form Bose-Einstein condensate and may be gravitationally bound to form axion clumps. Under the presence of electromagnetic waves with frequency $ω=m_{a}/2$, where $m_{a}$ is the axion mass, a resonant enhancement may occur, causing an instability of the axion clumps. With analytical and numerical approaches, we study the resonant instability of axionic dark matter clumps with infinite homogeneous mass distribution, as well as distribution with a finite boundary. After taking realistic astrophysical environments int…
Ultralight axion like particles (ALPs) of mass $m_a\in (10^{-21}\rm{eV}-10^{-22}\rm{eV})$ with axion decay constant $f_a\sim 10^{17}\rm{GeV}$ can be candidates for fuzzy dark matter (FDM). If celestial bodies like Earth and Sun are immersed in a low mass axionic FDM potential and if the ALPs have coupling with nucleons then the coherent oscillation of the axionic field results a long range axion hair outside of the celestial bodies. The range of the axion mediated Yukawa type fifth force is determined by the distance between the Earth and the Sun which fixes the upper bound of the mass of axio…
We study a new model of quintessential inflation which is inspired by supergravity and string theory. The model features a kinetic pole, which gives rise to the inflationary plateau, and a runaway quintessential tail. We envisage a coupling between the inflaton and the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) field which terminates the roll of the runaway inflaton and traps the latter at an enhanced symmetry point (ESP), thereby breaking the PQ symmetry. The kinetic density of the inflaton is transferred to the newly created thermal bath of the hot big bang due to the decay of PQ particles. The model successfully ac…
An ultralight scalar boson with mass $m_1 \simeq 10^{-22}$ eV is gaining credence as a Dark Matter (DM) candidate that explains the dark cores of dwarf galaxies as soliton waves. Such a boson is naturally interpreted as an axion generic in String Theory, with multiple light axions predicted in this context. We examine the possibility of soliton structures over a wide range of scales, accounting for galaxy core masses and the common presence of nuclear star clusters. We present a diagnostic soliton core mass-radius plot that provides a global view, indicating the existence of an additional axio…
In the present work we study possible time dependent effects in Axion Dark Matter searches employing resonant cavities. We find that the width of the resonance, which depends on the axion mean square velocity in the local frame, will show an annual variation due to the motion of the Earth around the sun (modulation). Furthermore, if the experiments become directional, employing suitable resonant cavities, one expects large asymmetries in the observed widths relative to the sun's direction of motion. Due to the rotation of the Earth around its axis, these asymmetries will manifest themselves as…
Relativistic axions are good candidates for the dark radiation for which there are mounting observational hints. The primordial decays of heavy fields produce axions which are ultra-energetic compared to thermalised matter and inelastic axion-matter scattering can occur with $E_{CoM} \gg T_γ$, thus accessing many interesting processes which are otherwise kinematically forbidden in standard cosmology. Axion-photon scattering into quarks and leptons during BBN affects the light element abundances, and bounds on overproduction of $^4$He constrain a combination of the axion decay constant and the …
Antiferromagnetically doped topological insulators (A-TI) are among the candidates to host dynamical axion fields and axion-polaritons; weakly interacting quasiparticles that are analogous to the dark axion, a long sought after candidate dark matter particle. Here we demonstrate that using the axion quasiparticle antiferromagnetic resonance in A-TI's in conjunction with low-noise methods of detecting THz photons presents a viable route to detect axion dark matter with mass 0.7 to 3.5 meV, a range currently inaccessible to other dark matter detection experiments and proposals. The benefits of t…
The ANITA experiment has recently observed two anomalous events emerging from well below the horizon. Even though they are consistent with tau cascades, a high energy Standard Model or Beyond the Standard Model explanation is challenging and in tension with other experiments. We study under which conditions the reflection of generic radio pulses can reproduce these signals. We propose that these pulses can be resonantly produced in the ionosphere via axion-photon conversion. This naturally explains the direction and polarization of the events and avoids other experimental bounds.
We show that axion-like particles that only couple to invisible dark photons can generate visible B-mode signals around the reionization epoch. The axion field starts rolling shortly before reionization, resulting in a tachyonic instability for the dark photons. This generates an exponential growth of the dark photon quanta sourcing both scalar metric modes and gravitational waves that leave an imprint on the reionized baryons. The tensor modes modify the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization at reionization, generating visible B-mode signatures for the next generation of CMB experime…
The nature of dark matter is one of the longest-standing puzzles in science. Axions or axion-like particles are a key possibility, and arise in mechanisms to solve the strong CP problem but also in low-energy limits of string theory. Extensive experimental and observational efforts are actively looking for `axionic' imprints. Independently on their nature, their abundance, and on their contribution to the dark matter problem, axions form dense clouds around spinning black holes, grown by superradiant mechanisms. It was recently suggested that once couplings to photons are considered, an expone…
We evaluate the efficiency of axion production from spatially random initial conditions in the axion field, so a network of axionic strings is present. For the first time, we perform numerical simulations which fully account for the large short-distance contributions to the axionic string tension, and the resulting dense network of high-tension axionic strings. We find nevertheless that the total axion production is somewhat less efficient than in the angle-averaged misalignment case. Combining our results with a recent determination of the hot QCD topological susceptibility (Borsanyi et al 20…
Axions are a promising dark matter candidate that were motivated to solve the strong CP problem and that may also address the cosmological matter-antimatter asymmetry. Axion-photon conversion is possible in the presence of the strong magnetic fields, and the photon so produced will have energy equal to the axion mass. Here we report new limits on axionic dark matter obtained from radio spectra of the Galactic Center magnetar PSR J1745-2900. The magnetar has a magnetic field of $1.6\times10^{14}$ G that interacts with a dark matter density $2\times10^5$ to $2\times10^9$ times greater than the l…
Axion-like particles are promising candidates to make up the dark matter of the universe, but it is challenging to design experiments that can detect them over their entire allowed mass range. Dark matter in general, and in particular axion-like particles and hidden photons, can be as light as roughly $10^{-22} \;\rm{eV}$ ($\sim 10^{-8} \;\rm{Hz}$), with astrophysical anomalies providing motivation for the lightest masses ("fuzzy dark matter"). We propose experimental techniques for direct detection of axion-like dark matter in the mass range from roughly $10^{-13} \;\rm{eV}$ ($\sim 10^2 \;\rm…
We revisit the generation of dark matter isocurvature perturbations in the curvaton model in greater detail, both analytically and numerically. As concrete examples, we investigate the cases of thermally decoupled dark matter and axionic dark matter. We show that the radiation produced by the decay of the curvaton, which has not been taken into account in previous analytical studies, can significantly affect the amplitude of isocurvature perturbations. In particular, we find that they are drastically suppressed even when the dark matter freeze-out (or the onset of the axion oscillations for ax…
Detecting axionic dark matter induced electron or nucleon oscillating electric dipole moment (OEDM) has become a new way for dark matter searches. We re-examine such axion-spin couplings in external electromagnetic fields. We point out that axion-photon interaction induces an electron spin effective coupling, which is different from an OEDM. In particular, the axion-spin effective coupling is directly related to magnetic field rather than electric field. For axion-electron or axion-nucleon couplings, an OEDM of fermion is introduced, whose effect in ultralight axion cases depends on whether ax…
Dark gauge sectors and axions are well-motivated in string theory. We demonstrate that if a confining gauge sector gives rise to dark glueballs that are a fraction of the dark matter, and the associated axion has a decay constant near the string scale, then this axion is ultralight and naturally realizes the fuzzy dark matter scenario with a modest tuning of a temperature ratio. Astrophysical observations constrain the size of the glueball component relative to the axionic component, while electric dipole moments constrain mixing with the QCD axion.
We consider the cosmological dynamics of a scalar field in a potential with multiple troughs and peaks. We show that the dynamics of the scalar field will evolve from light dark matter-like behaviour (such as that of a light axion) to a combination of heavy dark matter-like and dark energy-like behaviour. We discuss the phenomenology of such a model, explaining how it can give rise to the cosmological constant, as well as how it can decouple the dark sector densities between the time of recombination and today, for both the homogeneous background and perturbations. The final form of the dark m…
We study the effects of dark matter self-interactions on the local dark matter distribution in selected Milky Way-like galaxies in the EAGLE hydrodynamical simulations. The simulations were run with two different self-interacting dark matter models, a constant and velocity-dependent self-interaction cross-section. We find that the local dark matter velocity distribution of the Milky Way-like halos in the simulations with dark matter self-interactions and baryons are generally similar to those extracted from cold collisionless dark matter simulations with baryons. In both cases, the local dark …
Narrow stellar streams in the Milky Way halo are uniquely sensitive to dark-matter subhalos, but many of these subhalos may be tidally disrupted. I calculate the interaction between stellar and dark-matter streams using analytical and $N$-body calculations, showing that disrupting objects can be detected as low-concentration subhalos. Through this effect, we can constrain the lumpiness of the halo as well as the orbit and present position of individual dark-matter streams. This will have profound implications for the formation of halos and for direct and indirect-detection dark-matter searches…
Dissipative dark matter, where dark matter particle properties closely resemble familiar baryonic matter, is considered. Mirror dark matter, which arises from an isomorphic hidden sector, is a specific and theoretically constrained scenario. Other possibilities include models with more generic hidden sectors that contain massless dark photons (unbroken $U(1)$ gauge interactions). Such dark matter not only features dissipative cooling processes, but is also assumed to have nontrivial heating sourced by ordinary supernovae (facilitated by the kinetic mixing interaction). The dynamics of dissipat…
Dissipative dark matter self-interactions can affect halo evolution and change its structure. We perform a series of controlled N-body simulations to study impacts of the dissipative interactions on halo properties. The interplay between gravitational contraction and collisional dissipation can significantly speed up the onset of gravothermal collapse, resulting in a steep inner density profile. For reasonable choices of model parameters controlling the dissipation, the collapse timescale can be a factor of 10-100 shorter than that predicted in purely elastic self-interacting dark matter. The …
We investigate photon signatures of general decaying dark-matter particles in halos of primordial black holes. We derive the halo-profile density and the total decay rate for these combined dark-matter scenarios. For the case of axion-like particles of masses below $\mathcal{O}( 1 )\,$keV, we find strong bounds on the decay constant which are several orders of magnitude stronger than the strongest existing bounds, for all halo masses above $\mathcal{O}( 10^{-5} )$ solar masses. Using future X-ray measurements, it will be possible to push these bounds on such combined dark-matter scenarios even…
A brief review of light dark matter particles and their spectroscopy is presented, specifically aimed at understanding the interaction mechanisms of axion and Axion-Like Particles (ALPs) with matter and an interim proposal and some ideas for possible detection of these evasive particles. In order to venture into the highly challenging spectral regions and extremely weak signals involved with these searches (especially for the DFSZ axions), a different scheme is proposed departing from the conventional resonant cavity mass scan and heterodyne detection methods. We aim to look for a fixed mass a…
First I will review the QCD theta problem and the Peccei-Quinn solution, with its new particle, the axion. I will review the possibility of the axion as dark matter. If PQ symmetry was restored at some point in the hot early Universe, it should be possible to make a definite prediction for the axion mass if it constitutes the Dark Matter. I will describe progress on one issue needed to make this prediction -- the dynamics of axionic string-wall networks and how they produce axions. Then I will discuss the sensitivity of the calculation to the high temperature QCD topological susceptibility. My…
The axion particle, a consequence of an elegant hypothesis that resolves the strong-CP problem of quantum chromodynamics, is a plausible origin for cosmological dark matter. In searches for axionic dark matter that detect the conversion of axions to microwave photons, the quantum noise associated with microwave vacuum fluctuations will soon limit the rate at which parameter space is searched. Here we show that this noise can be partially overcome either by squeezing the quantum vacuum using recently developed Josephson parametric devices, or by using superconducting qubits to count microwave p…
Stability properties of gravitationally bound condensates composed of ultralight axionic Fuzzy Dark Matter (FDM) are studied. Previous work has shown that astrophysical collisions could make self-gravitating condensates structurally unstable, making them prone to collapse and decay; in the context of FDM, we reexamine the relevant timescales using the time-dependent variational method. We show that FDM condensates can be made unstable through gravitational interactions with central black holes, for black hole masses in a phenomenologically relevant range. Instability could also be stimulated b…
The halo independent comparison of direct dark matter detection data eliminates the need to make any assumption on the uncertain local dark matter distribution and is complementary to the usual data comparison which required assuming a dark halo model for our galaxy. The method, initially proposed for WIMPs with spin-independent contact interactions, has been generalized to any other interaction and applied to recent data on "Light WIMPs".
We describe a minimal extension of the standard model by three right-handed neutrinos, a scalar doublet, and a scalar singlet (the "$ν$DFSZ") which serves as an existence proof that weakly coupled high-scale physics can naturally explain phenomenological shortcomings of the SM. The $ν$DFSZ can explain neutrino masses, baryogenesis, the strong CP problem, and dark matter, and remains calculably natural despite a hierarchy of scales up to $\sim 10^{11}$ GeV. It predicts a SM-like Higgs boson, (maximally) TeV-scale scalar states, intermediate-scale hierarchical leptogenesis ($10^5\text{ GeV}\less…
