Axion Oscillations Research Articles

Bubble misalignment mechanism for axions

We study the dynamics of axions at first-order phase transitions in non-Abelian gauge theories. When the duration of the phase transition is short compared to the timescale of the axion oscillations, the axion dynamics is similar to the trapped misalignment mechanism. On the other hand, if this is not the case, the axions are initially expelled from the inside of the bubbles, generating axion waves on the outside. Analogous to the Fermi acceleration, these axions gain energy by repeatedly scattering off the bubble walls. Once they acquire enough energy, they can enter the bubbles. If the axion oscillations are relevant only inside the bubbles during the phase transition, the axion abundance is significantly enhanced compared to models where the axion mass is either constant or varies continuously as a function of temperature. The increase in axion abundance depends on the axion mass, the duration of the phase transition, and the bubble wall velocity. This mechanism results in a spatially inhomogeneous distribution of axions, which could lead to the formation of axion miniclusters. It has potential implications for the formation of oscillons/I-balls, axion warm dark matter, cosmic birefringence, and the production of dark photons.

Effects of the axion through the Higgs portal on primordial gravitational waves during the electroweak breaking

We investigate the effects of short axion kination eras on the energy spectrum of the primordial gravitational waves corresponding to modes that reenter the Hubble horizon at the postelectroweak symmetry breaking epoch well within the radiation domination era. Our main assumption is the existence of an extremely weakly coupled hidden sector between the Higgs and the axion, materialized by higher order nonrenormalizable dimension six and dimension eight operators, active at a scale $M$ of the order 20--100 TeV. This new physics scale $M$, which is way higher than the electroweak scale, is motivated by the lack of new particle observations in the large hadron collider to date beyond the electroweak scale. Once the electroweak symmetry breaking occurs at $T\ensuremath{\sim}100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$, the axion potential acquires a new minimum due to the new terms generated by the electroweak breaking, and the axion oscillations at the origin are destabilized. In effect after some considerable amount of time, the axion rolls swiftly to its new minimum, experiencing a short kination epoch, where its energy density redshifts as ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{a}\ensuremath{\sim}{a}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$. After it reaches the new minimum, since the latter is energetically less favorable that the Higgs minimum, it decays to the Higgs minimum and the Universe is described again by the Higgs minimum. The axion returns to the origin and commences again oscillations initiated by quantum fluctuations, redshifts as dark matter, and the same procedure is repeated perpetually. These short axion kination eras may disturb the background total equation of state parameter during the radiation domination era, changing it from that of radiation $w=1/3$ to some value closer to the kination value $w=1$. We examined the effect of a value $w=1/2$ on the energy density of the primordial gravitational waves. As we show, the energy spectrum of the gravitational waves mainly depends on how many times the short axion kination epochs occur, on the inflationary theory, on the actual value of the background equation of state parameter during the short kination eras, and finally on the reheating temperature. Our findings indicate a characteristic shape in the energy spectrum that can be observed in future gravitational wave experiments. We however disregarded the contribution of the electroweak phase transition on the gravitational waves for simplicity and transparency of our results.

R2 gravity effects on the kinetic axion phase space

In this work we consider the effect of an R 2 term on the kinetic misalignment axion theory. By using the slow-roll assumptions during inflation and the field equations, we construct an autonomous dynamical system for the kinetic axion, including the effects of the R 2 term and we solve numerically the dynamical system. As we demonstrate, the pure kinetic axion attractor is transposed to the right in the field phase space, and it is no longer , but it is , with some non-zero value of the scalar field with . This feature indicates that the kinetic axion mechanism is enhanced, and the axion oscillations are further delayed, compared with the pure kinetic axion case. The phenomenological implications on the duration of the inflationary era, on the commencing of the reheating era and the reheating temperature, are also discussed.

Radiation Backreaction in Axion Electrodynamics

Energy–momentum conservation of classical axion electrodynamics is carefully analyzed in the Hamiltonian formulation of the theory. The term responsible for the energy transfer between the electromagnetic and the axion sectors is identified. As a special application, the axion-to-light Primakoff process in the background of a static magnetic field is worked out and the radiative self-damping of the axion oscillations is characterized quantitatively. The damping time turns out comparable to the age of the Universe in the preferred axion mass range.

Resonant gravitational waves in dynamical Chern–Simons–axion gravity

In this paper, we consider dynamical Chern–Simons gravity with the identification of the scalar field coupled though the Pontryagin density with the axion dark matter, and we discuss the effects of the parametric resonance on gravitational waves (GWs). When we consider GWs in a coherently oscillating axion cloud, we confirm that significant resonant amplification of GWs occurs in a narrow frequency band, and the amplification is restricted to the late epoch after the passage of the incident waves. We also identify the condition that an axion cloud spontaneously emits GWs. Once we take into account the randomness of the spatial phase distribution of the axion oscillations, we find that the amplification is suppressed compared with the coherent case, but significant amplification of GWs can still occur. We also examine whether or not the amplification of GWs is possible in the present Universe, taking into account the history of the Universe. We find that resonant amplification is difficult to be tested from GW observations in the standard scenario of the axion DM model, in which the axion is the dominant component of DM. However, there is some parameter window in which the resonant amplification of GWs might be observed, if the axion is subdominant component of DM, and the axion cloud formation is delayed until the Hubble rate becomes much smaller than the axion mass.

Axion Oscillations in Binary Systems: Angle-action Surgery

Abstract Scalar, tensor waves induce oscillatory perturbations in Keplerian systems that can be probed with measurements of pulsar timing residuals. In this paper, we consider the imprint of coherent oscillations produced by ultralight axion dark matter on the Roemer time delay. We use the angle-action formalism to calculate the time evolution of the observed signal and its dependence on the orbital parameters and the axion phase. We derive exact analytical expressions for arbitrary binary pulsar mass ratio and eccentricity, alleviating the need for long numerical integrations. We emphasize the similarity of the expected signal-to-noise ratio with the response of a harmonic oscillator to an external oscillatory driving. We validate our theoretical predictions with numerical simulations. Our results furnish a useful benchmark for numerical codes and analysis procedures and, hopefully, will motivate the search for such imprints in real data.

Axion resonances in binary pulsar systems

We investigate the extent to which resonances between an oscillating background of ultra-light axion and a binary Keplerian system can affect the motion of the latter. These resonances lead to perturbations in the instantaneous time-of-arrivals, and to secular variations in the period of the binary. While the secular changes at exact resonance have recently been explored, the instantaneous effects have been overlooked. In this paper, we examine the latter using N-body simulations including the external oscillatory forcing induced by the axion background. While the secular effects are restricted to a narrow width near the resonance, the instantaneous changes, albeit strongest close to resonances, are apparent for wide range of configurations. We compute the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a function of semi-major axis for a detection of axion oscillations through the RØmer delay. The latter can be extracted from the time-of-arrivals of binary pulsars. The SNR broadly increases with increasing binary eccentricity as expected from secular expectations. However, we find that it differs significantly from the scaling a5/2 around the lowest orders of resonance. Future observations could probe these effects away from resonances and, therefore, constrain a much broader range of axion masses provided that binary pulsar systems are found near the central region of our Galaxy, and that the time-or-arrival measurement accuracy reaches ≲ 10 ns.

Axion miniclusters in modified cosmological histories

If the symmetry breaking leading to the origin of the axion dark matter field occurs after the end of inflation and is never restored, then overdensities in the axion field collapse to form dense objects known in the literature as axion miniclusters. The estimates of the typical minicluster mass and radius strongly depend on the details of the cosmology at which the onset of axion oscillations begin. In this work we study the properties and phenomenology of miniclusters in alternative cosmological histories and find that they can change by many orders of magnitude. Our findings have direct implications on current and future experimental searches and, in the case of discovery, could be used to learn something about the universe expansion prior to Big-Bang-Nucleosynthesis.

Dark photon dark matter produced by axion oscillations

Despite growing interest and extensive effort to search for ultralight dark matter in the form of a hypothetical dark photon, how it fits into a consistent cosmology is unclear. Several dark photon dark matter production mechanisms proposed previously are known to have limitations, at least in certain mass regimes of experimental interest. In this letter, we explore a novel mechanism, where a coherently oscillating axion-like field can efficiently transfer its energy density to a dark photon field via a tachyonic instability. The residual axion relic is subsequently depleted via couplings to the visible sector, leaving only the dark photon as dark matter. We ensure that the cosmologies of both the axion and dark photon are consistent with existing constraints. We find that the mechanism works for a broad range of dark photon masses, including those of interest for ongoing experiments and proposed detection techniques.

F(R) gravity inflation with string-corrected axion dark matter

It is quite well known for some time that string inspired axionic terms of the form $\nu (\phi)\tilde{R}R$, 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 canonical scalar field, with broken Peccei-Quinn symmetry. The model perfectly describing axions as potential dark matter candidates is based on the so-called misalignment mechanism, in which case the axion is frozen near its non-zero vacuum expectation value during early times in which $H\gg m_a$. In effect, the inflationary era is mainly controlled by the $f(R)$ gravity and the Chern-Simons term. As we demonstrate, the Chern-Simons term may achieve to make a non-viable $f(R)$ gravity theory to be phenomenologically viable, due to the fact that the tensor-to-scalar ratio is significantly reduced, and the same applies to the spectral index of the tensor perturbations $n_T$. Also by studying the Starobinsky model in the presence of the Chern-Simons term, we demonstrate that it is possible to further reduce the amount of primordial gravitational radiation. The issues of having parity violating gravitational waves, also the graceful exit from inflation due to axion oscillations and finally the unification of dark energy-inflation and axion dark matter in the same $f(R)$ gravity-axion dark matter model, are also briefly discussed.

Structure formation and microlensing with axion miniclusters

If the symmetry breaking responsible for axion dark matter production occurs during the radiation-dominated epoch in the early Universe, then this produces large amplitude perturbations that collapse into dense objects known as axion miniclusters. The characteristic minicluster mass, $M_0$, is set by the mass inside the horizon when axion oscillations begin. For the QCD axion $M_0\sim 10^{-10}M_\odot$, however for an axion-like particle $M_0$ can approach $M_\odot$ or higher. Using the Press-Schechter formalism we compute the mass function of halos formed by hierarchical structure formation from these seeds. We compute the concentrations and collapse times of these halos and show that they can grow to be as massive as $10^6M_0$. Within the halos, miniclusters likely remain tightly bound, and we compute their gravitational microlensing signal taking the fraction of axion dark matter collapsed into miniclusters, $f_{\rm MC}$, as a free parameter. A large value of $f_{\rm MC}$ severely weakens constraints on axion scenarios from direct detection experiments. We take into account the non-Gaussian distribution of sizes of miniclusters and determine how this effects the number of microlensing events. We develop the tools to consider microlensing by an extended mass function of non-point-like objects, and use microlensing data to place the first observational constraints on $f_{\rm MC}$. This opens a new window for the potential discovery of the axion.

Refined study of isocurvature fluctuations in the curvaton scenario

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 axionic dark matter) occurs before the curvaton decays, provided the freeze-out takes place deep in the curvaton-dominated Universe. As a consequence, we show that the current observational isocurvature constraints on the curvaton parameters are not as severe as usually thought.

Fermion production during and after axion inflation

We study derivatively coupled fermions in axion-driven inflation, specifically mϕ2ϕ2 and monodromy inflation, and calculate particle production during the inflationary epoch and the post-inflationary axion oscillations. During inflation, the rolling axion acts as an effective chemical potential for helicity which biases the gravitational production of one fermion helicity over the other. This mechanism allows for efficient gravitational production of heavy fermion states that would otherwise be highly suppressed. Following inflation, the axion oscillates and fermions with both helicities are produced as the effective frequency of the fermion field changes non-adiabatically. For certain values of the fermion mass and axion-fermion coupling strength, the two helicity states are produced asymmetrically, resulting in unequal number-densities of left- and right-helicity fermions.

Leptogenesis via Axion Oscillations after Inflation.

Once a light axionlike scalar field couples to the electroweak gauge bosons, its classical motion during reheating induces an effective chemical potential for the fermion number. In the presence of rapid lepton number (L)-violating processes in the plasma, such a chemical potential provides a favorable opportunity for baryogenesis via leptogenesis. We are able to demonstrate that L violation due to the exchange of heavy Majorana neutrinos is sufficient for a successful realization of this idea. Our mechanism represents a novel and minimal alternative to thermal leptogenesis, which turns out to be insensitive to the masses and CP-violating phases in the heavy neutrino sector. It is consistent with heavy neutrino masses close to the scale of grand unification and, quite complementary to thermal leptogenesis, requires the reheating temperature to be at least of order 10(12) GeV.

The Efficiency of CP-Violating <i>α</i>2-Dynamos from Primordial Cosmic Axion Oscillation with Torsion

Recently torsion fields were introduced in CP-violating cosmic axion a2-dynamos [Garcia de Andrade, Mod Phys Lett A, (2011)] in order to obtain Lorentz violating bounds for torsion. Here instead, oscillating axion solutions of the dynamo equation with torsion modes [Garcia de Andrade, Phys Lett B (2012)] are obtained taking into account dissipative torsion fields. Magnetic helicity torsion oscillatory contribution is also obtained. Note that the torsion presence guarantees dynamo efficiency when axion dynamo length is much stronger than the torsion length. Primordial axion oscillations due to torsion yield a magnetic field of 109 G at Nucleosynthesis epoch. This is obtained due to a decay of BBN magnetic field of 1015 G induced by torsion. Since torsion is taken as 10–20 s–1, the dynamo efficiency is granted over torsion damping. Of course dynamo efficiency is better in the absence of torsion. In the particular case when the torsion is obtained from anomalies it is given by the gradient of axion scalar [Duncan et al., Nuclear Phys B 87, 215] that a simpler dynamo equation is obtained and dynamo mechanism seems to be efficient when the torsion helicity, is negative while magnetic field decays when the torsion is positive. In this case an extremely huge value for the magnetic field of 1015 Gauss is obtained. This is one order of magnitude greater than the primordial magnetic fields of the domain wall. Actually if one uses tDW ~ 10-4 s one obtains BDW ~ 1022 G which is a more stringent limit to the DW magnetic primordial field.

Limiting the dimming of distant type Ia supernovae

Distant supernovae have been observed to be fainter than what is expected in a matterdominated universe. The most likely explanation is that the universe is dominated by anenergy component with negative pressure, namely dark energy. However, there are severalastrophysical processes that could, in principle, affect the measurements andin order to be able to take advantage of the growing supernova statistics, thecontrol of systematic effects is crucial. We discuss two of these; extinction due tointergalactic grey dust and dimming due to photon–axion oscillations and show howtheir effect on supernova observations can be constrained using observed quasarcolours and spectra. For a wide range of intergalactic dust models, we are ableto rule out any dimming larger than 0.2 magnitudes for a type Ia supernova atz = 1. The corresponding limit for intergalactic Milky Way type dust is 0.03 magnitudes. For themore speculative model of photons mixing with axions, we find that the effect isindependent of photon energy for certain combinations of parameter values and a dimmingas large as 0.6 magnitudes cannot be ruled out. These effects can have profoundimplications for the possibility of constraining dark energy properties using supernovaobservations.

Constraining photon–axion oscillations using quasar spectra

Using quasar spectra from the SDSS survey, we constrain thepossibility of photon–axion oscillations as a source of dimming ofhigh redshift objects. Such a process has been suggested as anexplanation of the apparent faintness of distant Type Iasupernovae. For most combinations of magnetic field strengths andplasma densities along the line of sight, large beam attenuations inbroad-band filters would also lead to significant differentialattenuation, not observed in the quasar sample. However, thisconservative study does not exclude the possibility of ∼0.1 magdimming of Type Ia supernovae for average plasma densities ne ≲ 10−8 cm−3. NIR and MIR spectroscopic studies of high-zsources may be used to put further constraints or provide indirectevidence for the existence of a very light axion.

Effects of the intergalactic plasma on supernova dimming via photon–axion oscillations

We have recently proposed a mechanism of photon–axion oscillations as a way of rendering supernovae dimmer without cosmic acceleration. Subsequently, it has been argued that the intergalactic plasma may interfere adversely with this mechanism by rendering the oscillations energy dependent. Here we show that this energy dependence is extremely sensitive to the precise value of the free electron density in the Universe. Decreasing the electron density by only a factor of 4 is already sufficient to bring the energy dependence within the experimental bounds. Models of the intergalactic medium show that for redshifts z<1 about 97% of the total volume of space is filled with regions of density significantly lower than the average density. From these models we estimate that the average electron density in most of space is lower by at least a factor of 15 compared to the estimate based on one half of all baryons being uniformly distributed and ionized. Therefore the energy dependence of the photon–axion oscillations is consistent with experiment, and the oscillation model remains a viable alternative to the accelerating Universe for explaining the supernova observations. Furthermore, the electron density does give rise to a sufficiently large plasma frequency which cuts off the photon–axion mixing above microwave frequencies, shielding the cosmic microwave photons from axion conversions and significantly relaxing the lower bounds on the axion mass implied by the oscillation model.

Invisible axions and large-radius compactifications

We study some of the novel effects that arise when the QCD axion is placed in the ``bulk'' of large extra spacetime dimensions. First, we find that the mass of the axion can become independent of the energy scale associated with the breaking of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry. This implies that the mass of the axion can be adjusted independently of its couplings to ordinary matter, thereby providing a new method of rendering the axion invisible. Second, we discuss the new phenomenon of laboratory axion oscillations (analogous to neutrino oscillations), and show that these oscillations cause laboratory axions to ``decohere'' extremely rapidly as a result of Kaluza-Klein mixing. This decoherence may also be a contributing factor to axion invisibility. Third, we discuss the role of Kaluza-Klein axions in axion-mediated processes and decays, and propose several experimental tests of the higher-dimensional nature of the axion. Finally, we show that under certain circumstances, the presence of an infinite tower of Kaluza-Klein axion modes can significantly accelerate the dissipation of the energy associated with cosmological relic axion oscillations, thereby enabling the Peccei-Quinn symmetry-breaking scale to exceed the usual four-dimensional relic oscillation bounds. Together, these ideas therefore provide new ways of obtaining an ``invisible'' axion within the context of higher-dimensional theories with large-radius compactifications.

Hypermagnetic knots, Chern-Simons waves, and the baryon asymmetry

At finite hyperconductivity and finite fermionic density the flux lines of long range hypermagnetic fields may not have a topologically trivial structure. The combined evolution of the chemical potentials and of pseudoscalar fields (like the axial Higgs), possibly present for temperatures in the TeV range, can twist the hypercharge flux lines, producing, ultimately, hypermagnetic knots (HK). The dynamical features of the HK depend upon the various particle physics parameters of the model (pseudoscalar masses and couplings, strength of the electroweak phase transition, hyperconductivity of the plasma) and upon the magnitude of the primordial flux sitting in topologically trivial configurations of the hypermagnetic field. We study different cosmological scenarios where HK can be generated. We argue that the fermionic number sitting in HK can be released producing a seed for the Baryon Asymmetry of the Universe (BAU) provided the typical scale of the knot is larger than the diffusivity length scale. We derive constraints on the primordial hypermagnetic flux required by our mechanism and we provide a measure of the parity breaking by connecting the degree of knottedness of the flux lines to the BAU. We rule out the ordinary axion as a possible candidate for production (around temperatures of the order of the GeV) of {\em magnetic} knots since the produced {\em electromagnetic} helicity is negligible (for cosmological standard) if the initial amplitude of the axion oscillations is of the order of the Peccei-Quinn breaking scale.