The evolution of cosmic perturbations in a two-component ultralight axionic universe is investigated. We present the first spectral computation of perturbations in multi-component universes. A particular case composed of light extreme axions and free massive particles offers a possibility for the formation of very high-redshift massive galaxies, which are typically required to host massive early quasars. Our computation retains the information of perturbed velocities for individual axion components, opening a new avenue for setting up initial conditions for future axion dark matter simulations.
We review the physics case for very weakly coupled ultralight particles beyond the Standard Model, in particular for axions and axion-like particles (ALPs): (i) the axionic solution of the strong CP problem and its embedding in well motivated extensions of the Standard Model; (ii) the possibility that the cold dark matter in the Universe is comprised of axions and ALPs; (iii) the ALP explanation of the anomalous transparency of the Universe for TeV photons; and (iv) the axion or ALP explanation of the anomalous energy loss of white dwarfs. Moreover, we present an overview of ongoing and near-f…
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.
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 consider the nonlinearly extended Einstein-Maxwell-axion theory, which is based on the account for two symmetries: first, the discrete symmetry associated with the properties of the axion field, second, the Jackson's symmetry, prescribing to the electrodynamics to be invariant with respect to the rotation in the plane coordinated by the electric and magnetic fields. We derive the master equations of the nonlinearly extended theory, and apply them to the Bianchi-I model with magnetic field. The main result, describing the behavior of the nonlinearly coupled axion, electromagnetic and gravita…
Dark photon is a massive vector field which interacts only with the physical photon through the kinetic mixing. This coupling is assumed to be weak so that the dark photon becomes almost unobservable in processes with elementary particles, but can serve as a dark matter particle. We argue that in very early Universe ($z>3000$) this vector field may have the equation of state of radiation ($w=1/3$) but later behaves as cold dark matter ($w=0$). This may slightly change the expansion rate of the Universe at early time and reduce the value of the sound horizon of baryon acoustic oscillations (sta…
We study the possibility of explaining the late time acceleration with an axion field which is coupled with the dark matter sector of the energy budget of the Universe. The axion field arises from the Ramond-Ramond sector of the Type-IIB string theory. We study the background evolution of the Universe as well as the growth of the matter perturbation in the linear regime. We subsequently use the observational data from Sn-Ia, BAO measurements, measurements of the Hubble parameter as well as the observational data for the growth of the matter perturbation to constrain our model. Our results show…
We investigate constraints on scalar dark matter (DM) by analyzing the Lyman-alpha forest, which probes structure formation at medium and small scales, and also by studying its cosmological consequences at high and low redshift. For scalar DM that constitutes more than 30% of the total DM density, we obtain a lower limit m >~ 10^{-21} eV for the mass of scalar DM. This implies an upper limit on the initial field displacement (or the decay constant for an axion-like field) of phi <~ 10^{16} GeV. We also derive limits on the energy scale of cosmic inflation and establish an upper bound on the te…
Wading the String Bog: CMB Birefringence in the Swampland
University of Parma（帕尔马大学）；INFN Gruppo Collegato di Parma（意大利国家核物理研究所帕尔马联合小组）；University of California, Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校）；Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY（德国电子同步加速器）
Cosmological evolution of axionic string network is analyzed in terms of field-theoretic simulations in a box of 512^3 grids, which are the largest ever, using a new and more efficient identification scheme of global strings. The scaling parameter is found to be ξ=0.87 +- 0.14 in agreement with previous results. The energy spectrum is calculated precisely using a pseudo power spectrum estimator which significantly reduces the error in the mean reciprocal comoving momentum. The resultant constraint on the axion decay constant leads to f_a <= 3*10^11 GeV. We also discuss implications for the ear…
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 that requiring the axion to have a matter-power spectrum that matches that of cold dark matter constrains the magnitude of the axion couplings to the visible sector. Comparing these limits to current and future experimental efforts, we find that many searches require axions with an abnormally large coupling to Standard Model fields, independently of how the a…
We study the axionic inflation with a modulated potential and examine if the primordial tensor power spectrum exhibits oscillatory feature, which is testable with future space-based gravitational wave experiments such as DECIGO and BBO. In the case of the single-field axion monodromy inflation, it turns out that it is difficult to detect the oscillation in the spectrum due to suppression of the sub-Planckian decay constant of axion. On the other hand, in the case of aligned chromo-natural inflation where the axion is coupled to a SU(2) gauge field, it turns out that the sizable oscillation in …
The existence of ultralight axion (ULA) with mass $\mathcal{O}( 10^{-26}\text{eV})$ is not favored by the CMB observations in the standard $Λ$CDM model. We show that the inclusion of early dark energy (EDE) will lift the CMB-lockdown on such ULA, and possibly other forms of dark matter beyond cold dark matter. By performing Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis, it is found that, as opposed to $Λ$CDM, the AdS-EDE cosmology (with an Anti-de Sitter phase around recombination) now allows the existence of axion with mass $10^{-26}$ eV and predicts $6\%$ of the matter in our Universe to be such ULA, wh…
We show results for the expected reach of the network of experiments that is being set up globally with the aim of detecting the "invisible" axion, in light of a non-standard thermal history of the universe. Assuming that the axion is the dark matter, we discuss the reach of a successful detection by a given experimental setup in a particular axion mass window for different modifications of the cosmological background before primordial nucleosynthesis occurred. Results are presented both in the case where the present energy budget in cold axions is produced through the vacuum realignment mecha…
We show that recent experiments based on Josephson junctions, SQUIDS, and coupled Josephson qubits have a cosmological interpretation in terms of axionic dark matter physics, in the sense that they allow for analogue simulation of early-universe axion physics. We propose new experimental setups in which SQUID-like axionic interactions in a resonant Josephson junction environment can be tested, similar in nature to recent experiments that test for quantum entanglement of two coupled Josephson qubits. We point out that the parameter values relevant for early-universe axion cosmology are accessib…
We present a toy model of an axion gauge field inflation scenario that yields viable density and gravitational wave spectra. The scenario consists of an axionic inflaton in a steep potential that is effectively flattened by a coupling to a collection of non-Abelian gauge fields. The model predicts a blue-tilted gravitational wave spectrum that is dominated by one circular polarization, resulting in unique observational targets for cosmic microwave background and gravitational wave experiments. The handedness of the gravitational wave spectrum is incorporated in a model of leptogenesis through …
Axion particles can form macroscopic condensates, whose size can be galactic in scale for models with very small axion masses $m\sim10^{-22}$ eV, and which are sometimes referred to under the name of Fuzzy Dark Matter. Many analyses of these condensates are done in the non-interacting limit, due to the weakness of the self-interaction coupling of axions. We investigate here how certain results change upon inclusion of these interactions, finding a decreased maximum mass and a modified mass-radius relationship. Further, these condensates are, in general, unstable to decay through number-changin…
Ultralight primordial black holes (PBHs) with masses $\lesssim 10^{15}$g and subatomic Schwarzschild radii, produced in the early Universe, are expected to have evaporated by the current cosmic age due to Hawking radiation. Based on this assumption, a number of constraints on the abundance of ultralight PBHs have been made. However, Hawking radiation has thus far not been verified experimentally. It would, therefore, be of interest if constraints on ultralight PBHs could be placed independent of the assumption of Hawking-radiation. In this paper, we explore the possibility of probing these PBH…
In this work, we study the quantum entanglement and compute entanglement entropy in de Sitter space for a bipartite quantum field theory driven by axion originating from ${\bf Type~ IIB}$ string compactification on a Calabi Yau three fold (${\bf CY^3}$) and in presence of ${\bf NS5}$ brane. For this compuation, we consider a spherical surface ${\bf S}^2$, which divide the spatial slice of de Sitter (${\bf dS_4}$) into exterior and interior sub regions. We also consider the initial choice of vaccum to be Bunch Davies state. First we derive the solution of the wave function of axion in a hyperbo…
We discuss the thermal evolution and Bose-Einstein condensation of ultra-light dark matter particles at finite, realistic cosmological temperatures. We find that if these particles decouple from regular matter before Standard model particles annihilate, their temperature will be about 0.9 K. This temperature is substantially lower than the temperature of CMB neutrinos and thus Big Bang Nucleosynthesis remains unaffected. In addition the temperature is consistent with WMAP 7-year+BAO+H0 observations without fine-tuning. We focus on particles of mass of $m\sim 10^{-23}$ eV, which have Compton wa…
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 $10^{-13} \;\rm{eV}$ ($\sim 10^2 \;\rm…
A QCD axion with a time-dependent decay constant has been known to be able to accommodate high-scale inflation without producing topological defects or too large isocurvature perturbations on CMB scales. We point out that a dynamical decay constant also has the effect of enhancing the small-scale axion isocurvature perturbations. The enhanced axion perturbations can even exceed the periodicity of the axion potential, and thus lead to the formation of axionic domain walls. Unlike the well-studied axionic walls, the walls produced from the enhanced perturbations are not bounded by cosmic strings…
The SRG/eROSITA all-sky survey: Constraints on Ultra-light Axion Dark Matter through Galaxy Cluster Number Counts
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics（马克斯·普朗克地外物理研究所）；Universität Innsbruck, Institut für Astro- und Teilchenphysik（因斯布鲁克大学天体与粒子物理研究所）；INAF, Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio（意大利国家天体物理研究所空间科学与天文观测台）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University（纽约州立大学石溪分校物理与天文学系）；Universität Hamburg, Hamburger Sternwarte（汉堡大学汉堡天文台）；Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University（国立成功大学物理系）；IRAP, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, UPS, CNES（图卢兹大学宇宙射线与天体物理学研究所）
The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) collaboration has recently reported strong evidence for a stochastic process affecting the 12.5 yr dataset of pulsar timing residuals. We show that the signal can be interpreted in terms of a stochastic gravitational wave background emitted from a network of axionic strings in the early Universe. The spontaneous breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry originate the axionic string network and the QCD axion, the dark matter particle in the model. We explore a non-standard cosmological model driven by an exotic scalar field…
Ultralight primordial black holes (PBHs)($\lesssim10^9$g) completely evaporate via Hawking radiation (HR) and produce all the particles in a given theory regardless of their other interactions. If the right handed (RH) neutrinos are produced from PBH evaporation, successful baryogenesis via leptogenesis predicts mass scale of RH neutrinos as well as black holes. We show that, given the lepton number violation (generation of RH neutrino masses) in the theory is a consequence of a gauged $U(1)$ breaking which is then followed by the formation of PBHs, a network of cosmic strings naturally gives …
These lectures, presented at TASI 2018, provide a concise introduction to inflation, baryogenesis, and aspects of dark matter not covered by the other lectures. The emphasis for inflation is an intuitive understanding and techniques for constraining inflationary models. For baryogenesis we focus on two examples, leptogenesis and electroweak baryogenesis, with attention to singlet-assisted two-step phase transitions. Concerning dark matter, we review different classes of models distinguished by their mechanisms for obtaining the observed relic density, including thermal freeze-out, asymmetric d…
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…
A generic prediction of string theory is the existence of many axion fields. It has recently been argued that many of these fields should be light and, like the well known QCD axion, lead to observable cosmological consequences. In this paper we study in detail the effect of the so-called string axiverse on large scale structure, focusing on the morphology and evolution of density perturbations, anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and weak gravitational lensing of distant galaxies. We quantify specific effects that will arise from the presence of the axionic fields and highlight po…
It has been suggested that the internal dynamics of dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) can be used to test whether or not ultralight axions with $m_a\sim 10^{-22}\text{eV}$ are a preferred dark matter candidate. However, comparisons to theoretical predictions tend to be inconclusive for the simple reason that while most cosmological models consider only dark matter, one observes only baryons. Here we use realistic kinematic mock data catalogs of Milky Way dSph's to show that the "mass-anisotropy degeneracy" in the Jeans equations leads to biased bounds on the axion mass in galaxies with unknown…
Axion-like fields are naturally generated by a mechanism of anomaly cancellation of one or more anomalous gauge abelian symmetries at the Planck scale, emerging as duals of a two-form from the massless bosonic sector of string theory. This suggests an analogy of the Green-Schwarz mechanism of anomaly cancellation, at field theory level, which results in one or more Stueckelberg pseudoscalars. In the case of a single Stueckelberg pseudoscalar $b$, vacuum misalignments at phase transitions in the early Universe at the GUT scale provide a small mass - due to instanton suppression of the periodic …
In previous works we have derived a Running Vacuum Model (RVM) for a string Universe, which provides an effective description of the evolution of 4-dimensional string-inspired cosmologies from inflation till the present epoch. In the context of this "stringy RVM" version, it is assumed that the early Universe is characterised by purely gravitational degrees of freedom, from the massless gravitational string multiplet, including the antisymmetric tensor field. The latter plays an important role, since its dual gives rise to a `stiff' gravitational-axion "matter", which in turn couples to the gr…
Non-canonical cosmology with an uplifted Higgs vacuum expectation value (Higgs-VEV) in the early universe is believed to provide the solution for existing tensions within the $Λ$CDM regime. We recently proposed a theoretical model called axi-Higgs to explore this framework. The axi-Higgs model features an ultralight axion with mass $m_a \sim 10^{-29}$ eV, which couples to the Higgs field such that the Higgs-VEV is driven by the axion background evolution. Phenomenologically, the axi-Higgs model is equivalent to $Λ$CDM+$m_e$+$ω_a$ which is defined as $Λ$CDM with electron mass variation and the …
We consider a cosmological scenario in which the very early Universe experienced a transient epoch of matter domination due to the formation of a large population of primordial black holes (PBHs) with masses $M \lesssim 10^{9}\,\textrm{g}$, that evaporate before Big Bang nucleosynthesis. In this context, Hawking radiation would be a non-thermal mechanism to produce a cosmic background of axion-like particles (ALPs). We assume the minimal scenario in which these ALPs couple only with photons. In the case of ultralight ALPs ($m_a \lesssim 10^{-9}\,\textrm{eV}$) the cosmic magnetic fields might t…
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Probing new signatures of ultralight axions with gravitational lensing
University of Pennsylvania（宾夕法尼亚大学）；King’s College London（伦敦国王学院）；Imperial College London（帝国理工学院）；Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto（多伦多大学邓普天文学与天体物理研究所）；Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto（多伦多大学加拿大理论天体物理研究所）；Cardiff University（卡迪夫大学）；Princeton University（普林斯顿大学）；University of Southern California（南加州大学）；Institute for Advanced Study（高等研究院）
The recent BICEP2 result shows that the Universe once has gone through the vacuum with the GUT scale energy density. The implied high scale inflation nullifies the dilution idea of topological defects, strings and domain walls, of the axionic system. In particular, domain walls are disastrous if the domain wall problem with domain-wall number greater than 1 is present. We argue that the model-independent axion in string compactification with the anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry resolves the domain wall problem naturally with a symmetry principle.
It is quite well known for some time that string inspired axionic terms of the form $ν(ϕ)\tilde{R}R$, known also as Chern-Simons terms, do not affect the scalar perturbations and the background evolution for a flat Friedman-Robertson-Walker Universe. In this paper we study and quantify the implications of the presence of the above term in the context of vacuum $f(R)$. Particularly, we assume that axionic dark matter is present during inflation, and we examine in a quantitative way the effects of axionic Chern-Simons terms on the tensor perturbations. The axion field is quantified in terms of a…
The highly populated, low-energy excitations of a scalar field of mass $m_a\sim 10^{-22}\,\textrm{eV}$ can represent the full dark matter content of the universe and alleviate some tensions in the standard cosmological scenario on small-scales. This {\it fuzzy dark matter} component is commonly assumed to arise as the consequence of a new axion-like particle in the matter sector, yet for simplicity it is usually modeled in terms of a simple free quadratic field. In this paper we consider how the cosmological constraints are modified when the effects of an instanton potential and temperature-de…
Motivated by the SU(2)$_{\rm CMB}$ modification of the cosmological model $Λ$CDM, we consider isolated fuzzy-dark-matter lumps, made of ultralight axion particles whose masses arise due to distinct SU(2) Yang-Mills scales and the Planck mass $M_P$. In contrast to SU(2)$_{\rm CMB}$, these Yang-Mills theories are in confining phases (zero temperature) throughout most of the Universe's history and associate with the three lepton flavours of the Standard Model of particle physics. As the Universe expands, axionic fuzzy dark matter comprises a three-component fluid which undergoes certain depercola…
It has been shown beyond reasonable doubt that the majority (about 95%) of the total energy budget of the universe is given by the dark components, namely Dark Matter and Dark Energy. What constitutes these components remains to be satisfactorily understood however, despite a number of promising candidates. An associated conundrum is that of the coincidence, i.e. the question as to why the Dark Matter and Dark Energy densities are of the same order of magnitude at the present epoch, after evolving over the entire expansion history of the universe. In an attempt to address these, we consider a …
Ultralight axions which couple sufficiently strongly to photons can leave imprints on the sky at diverse frequencies by mixing with cosmic light in the presence of background magnetic fields. We explore such direction dependent grey-body distortions of the CMB spectrum, enhanced by resonant conditions in the IGM plasma. We also find that if such axions are produced in the early universe and represent a subdominant dark radiation component today, they could convert into X-rays in supervoids, and brighten them at X-ray frequencies.
Recently it has been pointed out that a cosmic background of relativistic axion-like particles (ALPs) would be produced by the primordial decays of heavy fields in the post-inflation epoch, contributing to the extra-radiation content in the Universe today. Primordial magnetic fields would trigger conversions of these ALPs into sub-MeV photons during the dark ages. This photon flux would produce an early reionization of the Universe, leaving a significant imprint on the total optical depth to recombination $τ$. Using the current measurement of $τ$ and the limit on the extra-radiation content $Δ…
String scenarios generically predict that we live in a so called axiverse: the Universe with about a hundred of light axion species which are decoupled from the Standard Model particles. However, the axions can couple to the inflaton which leads to their production after inflation. Then, these axions remain in the expanding Universe contributing to the dark radiation component, which is severely bounded from present cosmological data. We place a general constraint on the axion production rate and apply it to several variants of reasonable inflaton-to-axion couplings. The limit merely constrain…
