New Bounds for Axions and Axion-Like Particles with keV-GeV Masses

Abstract

We give updated constraints on hypothetical light bosons with a two-photon coupling such as axions or axion-like particles (ALPs). We focus on masses and lifetimes where decays happen near big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN), thus altering the baryon-to-photon ratio and number of relativistic degrees of freedom between the BBN epoch and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) last scattering epoch, in particular such that $N_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\mathrm{CMB}}<N_{\mathrm{eff}}^{\mathrm{BBN}}$ and ${\eta }^{\mathrm{CMB}}<{\eta }^{\mathrm{BBN}}$. New constraints presented here come from Planck measurements of the CMB power spectrum combined with the latest inferences of primordial ${}^4$He and D/H abundances. We find that a previously allowed region in parameter space near $m=1\mathrm{MeV}$ and $\tau =100\mathrm{ms}$, consistent with a QCD axion arising from a symmetry breaking near the electroweak scale, is now ruled out at $>3\sigma$ by the combination of CMB+D/H measurements if only ALPs and three thermalized neutrino species contribute to $N_{\mathrm{eff}}$. The bound relaxes if there are additional light degrees of freedom present which, in this scenario, have their contribution limited to $\Delta N_{\mathrm{eff}}=1.1\pm 0.3$. We give forecasts showing that a number of experiments are expected to reach the sensitivity needed to further test this region, such as Stage-IV CMB and SUPER-KEKB, the latter a direct test insensitive to any extra degrees of freedom.

References in corpus (28)

• Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
• The Cosmic Microwave Background Spectrum from the Full COBE/FIRAS Data Set
• The Primordial Inflation Explorer (PIXIE): A Nulling Polarimeter for Cosmic Microwave Background Observations
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis in the Precision Cosmology Era
• Thermal Production of Gravitinos
• Planck 2013 results. XV. CMB power spectra and likelihood
• Search for a dark photon in e+e- collisions at BABAR
• A Measurement of the Damping Tail of the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum with the South Pole Telescope
• Primordial Nucleosynthesis: from precision cosmology to fundamental physics
• The Primordial Lithium Problem
• Updated Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Unstable Relic Particles
• A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Damping Tail from the 2500-square-degree SPT-SZ survey
• Precision measures of the primordial abundance of deuterium
• Cosmological bounds on pseudo Nambu-Goldstone bosons
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Temperature and Gravitational Lensing Power Spectrum Measurements from Three Seasons of Data
• The primordial abundance of 4He: evidence for non-standard big bang nucleosynthesis
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis as a Probe of New Physics
• Gravitino Production in the Inflationary Universe and the Effects on Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum at 148 and 218 GHz from the 2008 Southern Survey
• On a Light Spinless Particle Coupled to Photons
• The primordial helium abundance from updated emissivities
• AlterBBN: A program for calculating the BBN abundances of the elements in alternative cosmologies
• Nucleosynthesis Constraints on a Massive Gravitino in Neutralino Dark Matter Scenarios
• Quantifying uncertainties in primordial nucleosynthesis without Monte Carlo simulations
• Axion-photon Couplings in Invisible Axion Models
• Cosmological bounds on sub-MeV mass axions
• New Constraints on a Light Spinless Particle Coupled to Photons
• Sterile Neutrinos and Light Dark Matter Save Each Other

Cited by in corpus (70)

• Axion Cosmology
• The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts
• A facility to Search for Hidden Particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case
• The landscape of QCD axion models
• Probing MeV to 90 GeV axion-like particles with LEP and LHC
• Feebly-Interacting Particles:FIPs 2020 Workshop Report
• ALPs Effective Field Theory and Collider Signatures
• Revised constraints and Belle II sensitivity for visible and invisible axion-like particles
• The First Three Seconds: a Review of Possible Expansion Histories of the Early Universe
• The Low-Energy Effective Theory of Axions and ALPs
• Flavor probes of axion-like particles
• Axion-Like Particles at Future Colliders
• Phases of New Physics in the CMB
• A New Target for Cosmic Axion Searches
• The photo-philic QCD axion
• Decay photons from the ALP burst of type-II supernovae
• A Model of Visible QCD Axion
• Robust cosmological constraints on axion-like particles
• Interacting radiation after Planck and its implications for the Hubble Tension
• A viable QCD axion in the MeV mass range
• Precision tests of fundamental physics with $\eta$ and ${\eta }^{\prime }$ mesons
• The Irreducible Axion Background
• Spectral distortion constraints on photon injection from low-mass decaying particles
• Heavy Axion Opportunities at the DUNE Near Detector
• Probing Light Dark Matter with a Hadrophilic Scalar Mediator
• Updated BBN constraints on electromagnetic decays of MeV-scale particles
• On the interplay between astrophysical and laboratory probes of MeV-scale axion-like particles
• The Minimal Flavour Violating Axion
• A fresh look at ALP searches in fixed target experiments
• The Spectrum of the Axion Dark Sector
• Cosmological constraints on decaying axion-like particles: a global analysis
• Production of Thermal Axions across the ElectroWeak Phase Transition
• Charming ALPs
• Probing Decoupling in Dark Sectors with the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Cosmological Implications of Axion-Matter Couplings
• Axion-like particles as mediators for dark matter: beyond freeze-out
• Invisible decays of axion-like particles: constraints and prospects
• Displaced or invisible? ALPs from $B$ decays at Belle II
• Polarized anisotropic spectral distortions of the CMB: Galactic and extragalactic constraints on photon-axion conversion
• Searching for the axion-like particle at the EIC
• Constraining axion-like particles using the white dwarf initial-final mass relation
• Constraints on Axion-Lepton coupling from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• Collider constraints on axion-like particles
• Supersizing axions with small size instantons
• A global analysis of axion-like particle interactions using SMEFT fits
• Probing the Interactions of Axion-Like Particles with Electroweak Bosons and the Higgs Boson in the High Energy Regime at LHC
• Compression of turbulent magnetized gas in Giant Molecular Clouds
• Axion-like particles resolve the $B\to \pi K$ and g-2 anomalies
• Leptonic Meson Decays into Invisible ALP
• Was Entropy Conserved between BBN and Recombination?
• Emergent/Composite axions
• The Light Radion Window
• Enhanced neutrino polarizability
• Abundance and properties of dark radiation from the cosmic microwave background
• New perspective in searching for axion-like particles from flavor physics
• New insights into axion freeze-in
• Axion-Like Particles at the ILC Giga-Z
• Prospects and Limitations for Constraining Light Relics with Primordial Abundance Measurements
• Displaced Vertex signatures of a pseudo-Goldstone sterile neutrino
• Constraints for scalars and pseudoscalars from ${\left(g-2\right)}_l$ and existing $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ colliders
• Axionlike particles searches in reactor experiments
• Improved constraints for axion-like particles from 3-photon events at $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ colliders
• New Bounds on Heavy QCD Axions from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
• On the production of heavy axion-like particles in the accretion disks of gamma-ray bursts
• Precise evaluation of $h\to c\bar{c}$ and axion-like particle production
• Constraining axion-gluon coupling in monohadron processes
• The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC
• Nucleosynthesis and CMB bounds on photophilic ALPs: a fresh look
• ALPs and Heavy Hadron Chiral Perturbation Theory
• Cosmic Neutrinos and Other Light Relics