Cosmological implications of ultra-light axion-like fields

Abstract

Cosmological observations are used to test for imprints of an ultra-light axion-like field (ULA), with a range of potentials $V(\varphi )\propto [1-\cos (\varphi /f){]}^n$ set by the axion-field value $\varphi$ and decay constant $f$. Scalar field dynamics dictate that the field is initially frozen and then begins to oscillate around its minimum when the Hubble parameter drops below some critical value. For $n=1$, once dynamical, the axion energy density dilutes as matter; for $n=2$ it dilutes as radiation and for $n=3$ it dilutes faster than radiation. Both the homogeneous evolution of the ULA and the dynamics of its linear perturbations are included, using an effective fluid approximation generalized from the usual $n=1$ case. ULA models are parameterized by the redshift $z_c$ when the field becomes dynamical, the fractional energy density $f_{z_c}\equiv {\Omega }_a(z_c)/{\Omega }_{\mathrm{tot}}(z_c)$ in the axion field at $z_c$, and the effective sound speed $c_s^2$. Using Planck, BAO and JLA data, constraints on $f_{z_c}$ are obtained. ULAs are degenerate with dark energy for all three potentials if $1+z_c\lesssim 10$. When $3\times 10^4\gtrsim 1+z_c\gtrsim 10$, $f_{z_c}$ is constrained to be $\lesssim 0.004$ for $n=1$ and $f_{z_c}\lesssim 0.02$ for the other two potentials. The constraints then relax with increasing $z_c$. These results strongly constrain ULAs as a resolution to cosmological tensions, such as discrepant measurements of the Hubble constant, or the EDGES measurement of the global 21 cm signal.

22 pages, 12 figures, comments welcome

References in corpus (27)

• The Clustering of the SDSS DR7 Main Galaxy Sample I: A 4 per cent Distance Measure at z=0.15
• An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum
• The trouble with $H_0$
• Possible interaction between baryons and dark-matter particles revealed by the first stars
• A search for ultra-light axions using precision cosmological data
• Early dark energy, the Hubble-parameter tension, and the string axiverse
• The implications of an extended dark energy cosmology with massive neutrinos for cosmological tensions
• Ultra-Light Scalar Fields and the Growth of Structure in the Universe
• Galaxy UV-luminosity function and reionization constraints on axion dark matter
• A Vacuum Phase Transition Solves $H_0$ Tension
• New Physics in the Rayleigh-Jeans Tail of the CMB
• Cosmic Archaeology with Gravitational Waves from Cosmic Strings
• Dark energy from the string axiverse
• Axion as a Cold Dark Matter candidate
• Neutrinos help reconcile Planck measurements with both Early and Local Universe
• Dynamical and Gravitational Instability of Oscillating-Field Dark Energy and Dark Matter
• Dark energy with non-adiabatic sound speed: initial conditions and detectability
• The impact of ultra-light axion self-interactions on the large scale structure of the Universe
• No new cosmological concordance with massive sterile neutrinos
• The Implications of a Pre-reionization 21 cm Absorption Signal for Fuzzy Dark Matter
• Interacting Dark Energy: Possible Explanation for 21-cm Absorption at Cosmic Dawn
• The Spectrum of the Axion Dark Sector
• Can Early Dark Energy Explain EDGES?
• How Late can the Dark Matter form in our universe?
• Polarized anisotropic spectral distortions of the CMB: Galactic and extragalactic constraints on photon-axion conversion
• Robustness of cosmic neutrino background detection in the cosmic microwave background
• Axion as a cold dark matter candidate: Proof to fully nonlinear order

Cited by in corpus (203)

• In the Realm of the Hubble tension $-$ a Review of Solutions
• The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts
• Early Dark Energy Can Resolve The Hubble Tension
• Challenges for $\Lambda$CDM: An update
• Cosmology Intertwined II: The Hubble Constant Tension
• The $H_0$ Olympics: A fair ranking of proposed models
• Oscillating scalar fields and the Hubble tension: a resolution with novel signatures
• Seven hints that early-time new physics alone is not sufficient to solve the Hubble tension
• The Neutrino Puzzle: Anomalies, Interactions, and Cosmological Tensions
• Early Dark Energy Does Not Restore Cosmological Concordance
• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• Probing the gravitational wave background from cosmic strings with LISA
• Early dark energy from massive neutrinos -- a natural resolution of the Hubble tension
• Acoustic Dark Energy: Potential Conversion of the Hubble Tension
• The First Three Seconds: a Review of Possible Expansion Histories of the Early Universe
• Constraining Early Dark Energy with Large-Scale Structure
• A SHARP view of H0LiCOW: $H_0$ from three time-delay gravitational lens systems with adaptive optics imaging
• Resolving the Hubble Tension with New Early Dark Energy
• Cosmology With a Very Light $L_{\mu }-L_{\tau }$ Gauge Boson
• New Early Dark Energy
• Constraining the Self-Interacting Neutrino Interpretation of the Hubble Tension
• Revisiting a negative cosmological constant from low-redshift data
• Recent Progress in the Physics of Axions and Axion-Like Particles
• Dark Radiation and Superheavy Dark Matter from Black Hole Domination
• Tighter Limits on Dark Matter Explanations of the Anomalous EDGES 21cm Signal
• Probing the pre-BBN universe with gravitational waves from cosmic strings
• Axion Dark Matter Detection with CMB Polarization
• De Sitter vs Quintessence in String Theory
• Rock 'n' Roll Solutions to the Hubble Tension
• A combined analysis of the $H_0$ late time direct measurements and the impact on the Dark Energy sector
• Early modified gravity in light of the $H_0$ tension and LSS data
• Early dark energy resolution to the Hubble tension in light of weak lensing surveys and lensing anomalies
• Unified framework for Early Dark Energy from $\alpha$-attractors
• New constraint on Early Dark Energy from Planck and BOSS data using the profile likelihood
• Cosmological constraints in extended parameter space from the Planck 2018 Legacy release
• Thermal Friction as a Solution to the Hubble Tension
• Cosmological window onto the string axiverse and the supersymmetry breaking scale
• Constraints on the interacting vacuum -- geodesic CDM scenario
• Dark Energy at early times and ACT: a larger Hubble constant without late-time priors
• Interacting radiation after Planck and its implications for the Hubble Tension
• Detection of Early-Universe Gravitational Wave Signatures and Fundamental Physics
• Cosmic dissonance: new physics or systematics behind a short sound horizon?
• Hints of Early Dark Energy in Planck, SPT, and ACT data: new physics or systematics?
• Comparing early dark energy and extra radiation solutions to the Hubble tension with BBN
• Gravitational Waves from Global Cosmic Strings and Cosmic Archaeology
• Detection of isotropic cosmic birefringence and its implications for axion-like particles including dark energy
• Constraints on primordial gravitational waves from the Cosmic Microwave Background
• New Early Dark Energy is compatible with current LSS data
• Dark matter from an even lighter QCD axion: trapped misalignment
• Can Conformally Coupled Modified Gravity Solve The Hubble Tension?
• Clustering and Halo Abundances in Early Dark Energy Cosmological Models
• A fast test to assess the impact of marginalization in Monte Carlo analyses, and its application to cosmology
• Cosmological constraints on post-Newtonian parameters in effectively massless scalar-tensor theories of gravity
• Dark Sector to Restore Cosmological Concordance
• Combined analysis of Planck and SPTPol data favors the early dark energy models
• Early mass varying neutrino dark energy: Nugget formation and Hubble anomaly
• Resolving the Hubble tension with Early Dark Energy
• Updated constraints from the effective field theory analysis of BOSS power spectrum on Early Dark Energy
• No-go guide for the Hubble tension : Late-time solutions
• Coupled and uncoupled early dark energy, massive neutrinos and the cosmological tensions
• Testing H0 in Acoustic Dark Energy Models with Planck and ACT Polarization
• New Perspectives on Axion Misalignment Mechanism
• Neutrino-Assisted Early Dark Energy: Theory and Cosmology
• Isotropic cosmic birefringence from early dark energy
• Fuzzy Dark Matter and the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 Data
• Hot New Early Dark Energy
• A double take on early and interacting dark energy from JWST
• A tale of two (or more) $h$'s
• Warm Decaying Dark Matter and the Hubble Tension
• A fake Interacting Dark Energy detection?
• Primordial Black Hole Archaeology with Gravitational Waves from Cosmic Strings
• Chain Early Dark Energy: Solving the Hubble Tension and Explaining Today's Dark Energy
• Ultralight Scalar Decay and the Hubble Tension
• Uncertain Times: The Redshift-Time Relation from Cosmology and Stars
• Follow-up signals from superradiant instabilities of black hole merger remnants
• Searching for scalar dark matter with compact mechanical resonators
• Exploring Early Dark Energy solution to the Hubble tension with Planck and SPTPol data
• Return of Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum in light of recent cosmological tensions
• Pulsar timing residual induced by ultralight tensor dark matter
• Inflation, the Hubble Tension and Early Dark Energy: an alternative overview
• Closing the window on fuzzy dark matter with the 21cm signal
• A Dark Matter Interpretation of the ANITA Anomalous Events
• Hot New Early Dark Energy: Towards a Unified Dark Sector of Neutrinos, Dark Energy and Dark Matter
• Late time acceleration due to generic modification of gravity and Hubble tension
• Cosmological implications of $n_s\approx 1$ in light of the Hubble tension
• Cosmic Birefringence Test of the Hubble Tension
• Cosmology with varying fundamental constants from hyperlight, coupled scalars
• Model selection applied to reconstructions of the Dark Energy
• Varying fundamental constants principal component analysis: additional hints about the Hubble tension
• Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies
• Redshift evolution of cosmic birefringence in CMB anisotropies
• Cold New Early Dark Energy pulls the trigger on the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions: a simultaneous solution to both tensions without new ingredients
• No H_0 Assistance from Assisted Quintessence
• Constraining the spatial curvature with cosmic expansion history in a cosmological model with a non-standard sound horizon
• Constraining early dark energy with gravitational waves before recombination
• Observational Constraints on Axion(s) Dark Energy with a Cosmological Constant
• Microphysics of Early Dark Energy
• Jeans mass-radius relation of self-gravitating Bose-Einstein condensates and typical parameters of the dark matter particle
• $5\sigma$ tension between Planck cosmic microwave background and eBOSS Lyman-alpha forest and constraints on physics beyond $\Lambda$CDM
• Bounds on Ultra-Light Hidden-Photon Dark Matter from 21cm at Cosmic Dawn
• Inflationary Potential as seen from Different Angles: Model Compatibility from Multiple CMB Missions
• A grounded perspective on New Early Dark Energy using ACT, SPT, and BICEP/Keck
• Profiling Cold New Early Dark Energy
• Transition dynamics in the ${\Lambda }_{\mathrm{s}}$CDM model: Implications for bound cosmic structures
• WIMPflation
• Using the cosmological recombination radiation to probe early dark energy and fundamental constant variations
• Dipole Radiation and Beyond from Axion Stars in Electromagnetic Fields
• Probing Early Modification of Gravity with Planck, ACT and SPT
• Thermal Friction as a Solution to the Hubble and Large-Scale Structure Tensions
• Hot thermal universe endowed with massive dark vector fields and the Hubble tension
• ${\Lambda }_{\mathrm{s}}$CDM cosmology: Alleviating major cosmological tensions by predicting standard neutrino properties
• How sound are our ultra-light axion approximations?
• Cosmological Tension of Ultralight Axion Dark Matter and its Solutions
• Addressing the Hubble and $S_8$ Tensions with a Kinetically Mixed Dark Sector
• Novel constraints on fifth forces and ultralight dark sector with asteroidal data
• Accurate effective fluid approximation for ultralight axions
• Phantom braneworld and the Hubble tension
• Can phantom transition at $z\sim 1$ restore the Cosmic concordance?
• Pulsar Timing Residual induced by Wideband Ultralight Dark Matter with Spin 0, 1, 2
• Unraveling the early universe's equation of state and primordial black hole production with PTA, BBN, and CMB observations
• Cascading Dark Energy
• Effective theories for a nonrelativistic field in an expanding universe: Induced self-interaction, pressure, sound speed, and viscosity
• Probing Axions through Tomography of Anisotropic Cosmic Birefringence
• A testable hidden-sector model for Dark Matter and neutrino masses
• Unifying Inflation with early and late Dark Energy in Multi-Fields: Spontaneously broken scale invariant TMT
• Impact of symmetron screening on the Hubble tension: new constraints using cosmic distance ladder data
• Ultra-light axions and the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
• Testing the $n_s-H_0$ scaling relation with Planck-independent CMB data
• Constraints on Early Dark Energy from the Axion Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Towards alleviating the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions with Early Dark Energy - Dark Matter drag
• Measuring the cosmic expansion rate using 21-cm velocity acoustic oscillations
• Enhanced primordial gravitational waves from a stiff post-inflationary era due to an oscillating inflaton
• A comparison between axion-like and power law potentials in cosmological background
• Ultralight dark photon as a model for early universe dark matter
• A New Solution for the Observed Isotropic Cosmic Birefringence Angle and its Implications for the Anisotropic Counterpart through a Boltzmann Approach
• Early Dark Energy from a Higher-dimensional Gauge Theory
• Inflation and the cosmological (not-so) constant in unimodular gravity
• Kinetically Coupled Scalar Fields Model and Cosmological Tensions
• Non-oscillating Early Dark Energy and Quintessence from Alpha-Attractors
• Role of the Hubble Scale in the Weak Lensing vs. CMB Tension
• A Soliton Solution for the Central Dark Masses in 47- Tuc Globular Cluster and Implications for the Axiverse
• Reducing the $H_0$ Tension with Exponential Acoustic Dark Energy
• Quantum tunneling rate of dilute axion stars close to the maximum mass
• Early dark energy constraints with late-time expansion marginalization
• Probing ultralight scalar, vector and tensor dark matter with pulsar timing arrays
• Linear matter density perturbations in the ${\Lambda }_{\mathrm{s}}$CDM model: Examining growth dynamics and addressing the $S_8$ tension
• Quintessential early dark energy
• Evidence of dark energy in different cosmological observations
• Solar chameleons: Novel channels
• Cosmological implications of tracker scalar fields: Testing the evidence for dynamical dark energy with recent data
• General parametrization for energy density of quintessence field
• Imprint of Early Dark Energy in Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background
• Inflaton-driven early dark energy
• Scaling solutions as Early Dark Energy resolutions to the Hubble tension
• Can Early Dark Energy be Probed by the High-Redshift Galaxy Abundance?
• Axion as a fuzzy-dark-matter candidate: Proofs in different gauges
• A universal bound on the duration of a kination era
• Can acoustic and axion-like early dark energy still resolve the Hubble tension?
• A convenient approach to characterizing model uncertainty with application to early dark energy solutions of the Hubble tension
• Constraining Ultra-light Axions with Galaxy Cluster Number Counts
• Chameleon Early Dark Energy and the Hubble Tension
• Incompatibility of fine-structure constant variations at recombination with local observations
• What if the universe expands linearly? A local general relativity to solve the "zero active mass" problem
• One Extension to Explain Them All, One Scale-Invariant Spectrum to Test Them All, and in One Model Bind Them
• Accurate method for ultralight axion CMB and matter power spectra
• Prospects for disentangling dark matter with weak lensing
• Astrophysical Searches and Constraints on Ultralight Bosonic Dark Matter
• Redshift-space distortion constraints on the neutrino mass and models to alleviate the Hubble tension
• Equality scale-based and sound horizon-based analysis of the Hubble tension
• Signatures of Very Early Dark Energy in the Matter Power Spectrum
• Addressing the DESI DR2 Phantom-Crossing Anomaly and Enhanced $H_0$ Tension with Reconstructed Scalar-Tensor Gravity
• The Hubble tension from the standpoint of quantum cosmology
• Nonlinear cosmological structure with ultralight bosons via modified gravity
• A possible solution to the Hubble tension from quantum gravity
• Early dark energy in the pre- and post-recombination epochs
• A quintessence dynamical dark energy model from ratio gravity
• $\Lambda$CDM and early dark energy in latent space: a data-driven parametrization of the CMB temperature power spectrum
• Hitchhiker's Guide to the Swampland: The Cosmologist's Handbook to the string-theoretical Swampland Programme
• Lowering the Horizon on Dark Energy: A Late-Time Response to Early Solutions for the Hubble Tension
• Constraints on the varying electron mass and early dark energy in light of ACT DR6 and DESI DR2 and the implications for inflation
• A flexible parameterization to test early physics solutions to the Hubble tension with future CMB data
• Conversations in the dark: cross-correlating birefringence and LSS to constrain axions
• Sound Horizon Independent Constraints on Early Dark Energy: The Role of Supernova Data
• Constraints on the phase transition of Early Dark Energy with the CMB anisotropies
• Constraining Ultralight Axions with Galaxy Surveys
• Common Origin of Warm Dark Matter and Dark Radiation
• The Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structure for Mixed Dark Matter Scenarios
• Testing the coupling of dark radiations in light of the Hubble tension
• Thermo-Coupled Early Dark Energy
• The cosmological evolution of ultralight axionlike scalar fields
• Accretion, Evaporation and Superradiance Phase Diagram of (Primordial) Black Holes and $10^{-21}-10^{21}$ eV Scalar, Vector, Tensor Fields
• Vacuum arbitrariness and the Hubble tension
• Dissecting the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions with Planck + BAO + supernova type Ia in multi-parameter cosmologies
• Impact of a Rapid Diluted Energy Density on the halo mass function
• Discovery goals and opportunities in high energy physics: a defense of BSM-oriented exploration over signalism
• Theoretical and observational constraints on early dark energy in $F(R)$ gravity
• Saving CNB assisted EDE model at the expense of quantum corrections?
• Uncertainty-Aware Neural Networks for Fuzzy Dark Matter Model Selection from \texorpdfstring{$x_{\mathrm{HI}}$}{x_HI} Measurements
• The Cosmic Rush Hour: Rapid Formation of Bright, Massive, Disky, Star-Forming Galaxies as Signatures of Early-Universe Physics
• ABCMB: A Python+JAX Package for the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectrum
• Testing the Anton-Schmidt dark energy model with the DESI DR2 measurements
• The $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions necessitate early and late time changes to $\Lambda$CDM
• An effective fluid description of scalar-vector-tensor theories under the sub-horizon and quasi-static approximations