High Quality QCD Axion at Gravitational Wave Observatories

Abstract

The axion solution to the strong CP problem is delicately sensitive to Peccei-Quinn breaking contributions that are misaligned with respect to QCD instantons. Heavy QCD axion models are appealing because they avoid this so-called "quality problem". We show that generic realizations of this framework can be probed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA interferometers, through the stochastic gravitational wave (GW) signal sourced by the long-lived axionic string-domain wall network, and by upcoming measurements of the neutron and proton Electric Dipole Moments. Additionally, we provide predictions for searches at future GW observatories, which will further explore the parameter space of heavy QCD axion models.

6+7 pages, 9 figures. v2: 5+9 pages, 10 figures. Discussion on origin of misaligned contributions added in Appendix, references updated

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Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Primordial black hole dark matter from catastrogenesis with unstable pseudo-Goldstone bosons
• Primordial Black Holes from Axion Domain Wall Collapse
• Pulsar Timing Residual induced by Wideband Ultralight Dark Matter with Spin 0, 1, 2
• Post-inflationary axions: a minimal target for axion haloscopes
• Domain wall annihilation -- a QFT perspective
• Testing Unification and Dark Matter with Gravitational Waves
• Implications for Cosmic Domain Walls from LIGO-Virgo First Three Observing Runs
• The Spectrum of Gravitational Waves from Annihilating Domain Walls
• Gravitational Wave Signatures of Gauged Baryon and Lepton Number
• Shedding Light on Dark Sectors with Gravitational Waves
• Cosmological scaling of precursor domain walls
• Evolution of a kink-antikink ensemble in a quantum vacuum