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 gravitational anomaly terms, assumed to be non-trivial at early epochs. In the presence of primordial gravitational wave (GW) perturbations, such anomalous couplings lead to an RVM-like dynamical inflation, without external inflatons. We review here this framework and discuss potential scenarios for the generation of such primordial GW, among which the formation of unstable domain walls, which eventually collapse in a non-spherical-symmetric manner, giving rise to GW. We also remark that the same type of "stiff" axionic matter could provide, upon the generation of appropriate potentials during the post-inflationary eras, (part of) the Dark Matter (DM) in the Universe, which could well be ultralight, depending on the parameters of the string-inspired model. All in all, the new (stringy) mechanism for RVM-inflation preserves the basic structure of the original (and more phenomenological) RVM, as well as its main advantages: namely, a mechanism for graceful exit and for generating a huge amount of entropy capable of explaining the horizon problem. It also predicts axionic DM and the existence of mild dynamical Dark Energy (DE) of quintessence type in the present universe, both being "living fossils" of the inflationary stages of the cosmic evolution.
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…
In this work, we study the phenomena of quantum entanglement by computing de Sitter entanglement entropy from von Neumann measure. For this purpose we consider a bipartite quantum field theoretic setup in presence of axion originating from ${\bf Type~ II~B}$ string theory. We consider the initial vacuum to be CPT invariant non-adiabatic $α$ vacua state under ${\bf SO(1,4)}$ ismometry, which is characterized by a real one-parameter family. To implement this technique we use a ${\bf S^2}$ which divide the de Sitter into two exterior and interior sub-regions. First, we derive the wave function of…
An interesting result in particle astrophysics is the recent detection of an unexplained 3.5 keV line from galaxy clusters. A promising model, which can explain the morphology of the signal and its non-observation in dwarf spheroidal galaxies, involves a 7 keV dark matter particle decaying into a pair of ultra-light axions that convert into photons in the magnetic field of the clusters. Given that light axions emerge naturally in 4D string vacua, in this paper we present a microscopic realisation of this model within the framework of type IIB flux compactifications. Dark matter is a local clos…
We show that string moduli have axion-philic nature owing to the model-insensitive derivative interactions arising from the Kaehler potential. The decay of a modulus into stringy axions occurs without suppression by the mass of final states. Interestingly, it turns out to hold in general not only for the scalar partner of the stringy axion but also for any other moduli. The decay into (pseudo) Nambu-Goldstone bosons (NGBs) also avoids such mass suppression if the modulus is lighter than or similar in mass to the scalar partner of the NGB. Such axion-philic nature makes string moduli a natural …
In this work, we study the impact of quantum entanglement on the two-point correlation function and the associated primordial power spectrum of mean square vacuum fluctuation in a bipartite quantum field theoretic system. The field theory that we consider is the effective theory of axion field arising from Type IIB string theory compactified to four dimensions. We compute the expression for the power spectrum of vacuum fluctuation in three different approaches, namely (1) field operator expansion (FOE) technique with the quantum entangled state, (2) reduced density matrix (RDM) formalism with …
Intersecting D6-branes provide a geometrically intuitive road to stringy particle physics models, where D6-branes stuck at orbifold singularities can lead to the stabilisation of deformation moduli, and the QCD axion can arise from the open string sector in a very constrained way compared to pure field theory. We demonstrate this interplay of different physical features here through an explicit model.
We obtain axionic charged primordial black holes on a vacuum created gravitational pair of $(3{\bar 3})$-brane by the Kalb-Ramond field on a $D_4$-brane in presence of a background open string metric. The new geometries on an emergent pair of $(3{\bar 3})$-brane universe is shown to be influenced by the non-perturbative quantum effects underlying a geometric torsion in a second order formalism. The presence of small extra dimensions transverse to the pair in the formalism ensures dynamical scalar fields hidden to a $3$-brane or an anti 3-brane universe. We investigate the non-perturbative quan…
In previous works we have embedded the Running Vacuum Model (RVM) of Cosmology in the framework of string theory. Specifically, we considered a string-inspired Cosmology with primordial gravitational waves (GW) and gravitational anomalies, which were argued to lead, via appropriate condensation during the very-early-universe era, to dynamical inflation, of RVM type, without the need for extra inflaton fields. A crucial role for the associated slow-roll nature of the inflationary era was played by the fundamental axion field that exists in the gravitational multiplet of strings, viz. the Kalb-R…
We investigate the possibility of enhancement of effective axion decay constant in well controlled constructions in string theory. To this end, we study the dynamics of axions arising in the compactifications of type IIA string theory on Calabi-Yau orientifolds with background fluxes (with non-perturbative effects included to ensure stabilization of all moduli). In this setup, we attempt to obtain large effective axion decay constant in two different ways: by searching for a direction in field space in which the potential is sufficiently flat and by arriving at a very explicit stringy embeddin…
We study gauge theories where quasi-hidden sectors are added to the MSSM for the sake of string consistency conditions which would otherwise not be satisfied. We focus on quiver gauge theories motivated by weakly coupled type II orientifold compactifications. Model independent features in this class include an anomalous U(1)_V symmetry which protects messenger masses and has strong consequences for superpotential couplings, a rich phenomenology of heavy and light Z' bosons, and axionic couplings required for anomaly cancellation via the Green-Schwarz mechanism. We discuss possibilities for dar…
We study the general multi-axion systems, focusing on the possibility of large field inflation driven by axions. We find that through axion mixing from a non-diagonal metric on the moduli space and/or from Stückelberg coupling to a U(1) gauge field, an effectively super-Planckian decay constant can be generated without the need of "alignment" in the axion decay constants. We also investigate the consistency conditions related to the gauge symmetries in the multi-axion systems, such as vanishing gauge anomalies and the potential presence of generalized Chern-Simons terms. Our scenario applies g…
It is widely believed that string theory easily allows for a QCD axion in the cosmologically favoured mass range. The required small decay constant, $f_a\ll M_P$, can be implemented by using a large compactification volume. This points to the Large Volume Scenario which in turn makes certain cosmological predictions: First, the closed string axion behaves similarly to a field-theoretic axion in the pre-inflationary scenario, i.e. the initial value can be tuned but one is constrained by isocurvature fluctuations. In addition, the volume represents a long-lived modulus that may lead to an early …
In this letter, we elaborate further on a Cosmological "Running-Vacuum" type model for the Universe, suggested previously by the authors within the context of a string-inspired effective theory in the presence of a Kalb-Ramond (KR) gravitational axion field which descends from the antisymmetric tensor of the massless gravitational string multiplet. In the presence of this field, which has anomalous CP violating interactions with the gravitons, primordial gravitational waves induce gravitational anomalies, which in turn are responsible for the appearance of $H^2$ and $H^4$ contributions to the …
We present a particularly simple model of axion monodromy: Our axion is the lowest-lying KK-mode of the RR-2-form-potential $C_2$ in the standard Klebanov-Strassler throat. One can think of this inflaton candidate as being defined by the integral of $C_2$ over the $S^2$ cycle of the throat. It obtains an exponentially small mass from the IR-region in which the $S^2$ shrinks to zero size both with respect to the Planck scale and the mass scale of local modes of the throat. Crucially, the $S^2$ cycle has to be shared between two throats, such that the second locus where the $S^2$ shrinks is also…
Strong (sublattice or tower) formulations of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) imply that, if a weakly coupled gauge theory exists, a tower of charged particles drives the theory to strong coupling at an ultraviolet scale well below the Planck scale. This tower can consist of low-spin states, as in Kaluza-Klein theory, or high-spin states, as with weakly-coupled strings. We provide a suggestive bottom-up argument based on the mild $p$-form WGC that, for any gauge theory coupled to a fundamental axion through a $θF \wedge F$ term, the tower is a stringy one. The charge-carrying string states at…
There exists a widely spread notion that gravitational effects can strongly violate global symmetries. It may lead to many important consequences. We will argue, in particular, that nonperturbative gravitational effects in the axion theory lead to a strong violation of CP invariance unless they are suppressed by an extremely small factor 10^{-82}. One could hope that this problem disappears if one represents the global symmetry of a pseudoscalar axion field as a gauge symmetry of the Ogievetsky-Polubarinov-Kalb-Ramond antisymmetric tensor field. We will show, however, that this gauge symmetry …
We elaborate further on the compatibility of the "vacuumon potential" that characterises the inflationary phase of the Running Vacuum Model (RVM) with the Swampland criteria. The work is motivated by the fact that, as demonstrated recently by the authors [1-3], the RVM framework can be derived as an effective gravitational field theory stemming from underlying microscopic (critical) string theory models with gravitational anomalies, involving condensation of primordial gravitational waves. Although believed to be a classical scalar field description, not representing a fully fledged quantum fi…
The stochastic gravitational-wave backgrounds (SGWBs) for current detectors are dominated by binary black-hole (BBH) and binary neutron-star (BNS) coalescences. The sensitivity of current networks of gravitational-wave (GW) detectors allows only a small fraction of BBHs and BNSs to be resolved and subtracted, but previous work indicated that the situation should significantly improve with next-generation (XG) observatories. We revisit these conclusions by taking into account waveform-modeling uncertainties, updated astrophysical models, and (crucially) the full set of parameters that must be e…
