Axion Dark Matter and Planck favor non-minimal couplings to gravity

Abstract

Constraints on inflationary scenarios and isocurvature perturbations have excluded the simplest and most generic models of dark matter based on QCD axions. Considering non-minimal kinetic couplings of scalar fields to gravity substantially changes this picture. The axion can account for the observed dark matter density avoiding the overproduction of isocurvature fluctuations. Finally, we show that assuming the same non-minimal kinetic coupling to the axion (dark matter) and to the standard model Higgs boson (inflaton) provides a minimal picture of early time cosmology.

7 pages, 1 figure, revtex, v3: explanations and references added, accepted for publication in Phys.Lett.B

References in corpus (8)

• The Standard Model Higgs boson as the inflaton
• The Effective Field Theory of Inflation
• Searching for WISPy Cold Dark Matter with a Dish Antenna
• Axion cosmology with long-lived domain walls
• Update of axion CDM energy density
• UV-Protected Inflation
• Physics of Trans-Planckian Gravity
• Non-Gaussianity and Gravitational Waves from Quadratic and Self-interacting Curvaton

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