Constraints on Early Dark Energy from the Axion Weak Gravity Conjecture

Abstract

A popular proposal for resolving the Hubble tension involves an early phase of dark energy, driven by an axion field with a periodic potential. In this paper, we argue that these models are tightly constrained by the axion weak gravity conjecture: for typical parameter values, the axion decay constant must satisfy $f<0.008M_{\text{Pl}}$, which is smaller than the axion decay constants appearing in the vast majority of early dark energy models to date. We discuss possible ways to evade or loosen this constraint, arguing that its loopholes are small and difficult to thread. This suggests that it may prove challenging to realize early dark energy models in a UV complete theory of quantum gravity.

arXiv comment7 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (58)

• A 2.4% Determination of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant
• String Axiverse
• Axions In String Theory
• The String Landscape, Black Holes and Gravity as the Weakest Force
• On the Geometry of the String Landscape and the Swampland
• Early Dark Energy Can Resolve The Hubble Tension
• Monodromy in the CMB: Gravity Waves and String Inflation
• Gravity Waves and Linear Inflation from Axion Monodromy
• Completing Natural Inflation
• N-flation
• H0LiCOW V. New COSMOGRAIL time delays of HE0435-1223: $H_0$ to 3.8% precision from strong lensing in a flat $\Lambda$CDM model
• Assisted inflation
• A Natural Framework for Chaotic Inflation
• H0LiCOW - IX. Cosmographic analysis of the doubly imaged quasar SDSS 1206+4332 and a new measurement of the Hubble constant
• Early Dark Energy Does Not Restore Cosmological Concordance
• Cosmological implications of ultra-light axion-like fields
• On the Possibility of Large Axion Decay Constants
• Constraining Early Dark Energy with Large-Scale Structure
• Tensionless Strings and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Super-Planckian Spatial Field Variations and Quantum Gravity
• An Ignoble Approach to Large Field Inflation
• Extranatural Inflation
• Higher-order corrections to mass-charge relation of extremal black holes
• Evidence for a Lattice Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Consistency tests of $\Lambda$CDM from the early integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect: Implications for early-time new physics and the Hubble tension
• Transplanckian axions !?
• Arbitrating the $S_8$ discrepancy with growth rate measurements from Redshift-Space Distortions
• Sharpening the Weak Gravity Conjecture with Dimensional Reduction
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture in three dimensions
• Early dark energy is not excluded by current large-scale structure data
• Proof of the Weak Gravity Conjecture from Black Hole Entropy
• Backreacted Axion Field Ranges in String Theory
• Natural Inflation and Quantum Gravity
• Planckian Axions and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• The dS swampland conjecture and the Higgs potential
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture and Emergence from an Ultraviolet Cutoff
• Euclidean wormholes, baby universes, and their impact on particle physics and cosmology
• Testing the Weak Gravity -- Cosmic Censorship Connection
• Weak Gravity Strongly Constrains Large-Field Axion Inflation
• Thermal Friction as a Solution to the Hubble Tension
• Axion-Dilaton Destabilization and the Hubble Tension
• On the Possibility of Large Axion Moduli Spaces
• Causality, Unitarity, and the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Modular Fluxes, Elliptic Genera, and Weak Gravity Conjectures in Four Dimensions
• A Holographic Derivation of the Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Chern-Weil Global Symmetries and How Quantum Gravity Avoids Them
• Generalized Symmetry Breaking Scales and Weak Gravity Conjectures
• Can Gravitational Instantons Really Constrain Axion Inflation?
• Further evidence for the weak gravity -- cosmic censorship connection
• The Early Dark Sector, the Hubble Tension, and the Swampland
• Dark Energy, $H_0$ and Weak Gravity Conjecture
• Ultralight Scalar Decay and the Hubble Tension
• The dS swampland conjecture with the electroweak symmetry and QCD chiral symmetry breaking
• Duality and Axionic Weak Gravity
• Systematics of Axion Inflation in Calabi-Yau Hypersurfaces
• A proof of the weak gravity conjecture
• Axion decay constants away from the lamppost
• The Weak Gravity Conjecture and BPS Particles

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Rock 'n' Roll Solutions to the Hubble Tension