Cosmic Birefringence Triggered by Dark Matter Domination.

Shota Nakagawa,Masaki Yamada,Fuminobu Takahashi

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.127.181103

Abstract

Cosmic birefringence is predicted if an axionlike particle (ALP) moves after the recombination. We show that this naturally happens if the ALP is coupled to the dark matter density because it then acquires a large effective mass after the matter-radiation equality. Our scenario applies to a broad range of the ALP mass m_{ϕ}≲10^{-28} eV, even smaller than the present Hubble constant. We give a simple model to realize this scenario, where dark matter is made of hidden monopoles, which give the ALP such a large effective mass through the Witten effect. The mechanism works if the ALP decay constant is of order of the grand unified theory scale without a fine-tuning of the initial misalignment angle. For smaller decay constant, the hidden monopole can be a fraction of dark matter. We also study the implications for the QCD axion, and show that the domain wall problem can be solved by the effective mass.

Highlights

Introduction.—Axions are ubiquitous in string theory and are known to have interesting effects on various observables, despite the fact that their interactions are suppressed by large mass scales such as the string scale
We show that this naturally happens if the axionlike particle (ALP) is coupled to the dark matter density because it acquires a large effective mass after the matter-radiation equality
The mechanism works if the ALP decay constant is of order of the grand unified theory scale without a fine-tuning of the initial misalignment angle

Summary

Introduction

Introduction.—Axions are ubiquitous in string theory and are known to have interesting effects on various observables, despite the fact that their interactions are suppressed by large mass scales such as the string scale. We show that this naturally happens if the ALP is coupled to the dark matter density because it acquires a large effective mass after the matter-radiation equality. We give a simple model to realize this scenario, where dark matter is made of hidden monopoles, which give the ALP such a large effective mass through the Witten effect.

Results

Conclusion