The Quality/Cosmology Tension for a Post-Inflation QCD Axion
arXiv:2312.07650 · doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2024)227
Abstract
It is difficult to construct a post-inflation QCD axion model that solves the axion quality problem (and hence the Strong CP problem) without introducing a cosmological disaster. In a post-inflation axion model, the axion field value is randomized during the Peccei-Quinn phase transition, and axion domain walls form at the QCD phase transition. We emphasize that the gauge equivalence of all minima of the axion potential (i.e., domain wall number one) is insufficient to solve the cosmological domain wall problem. The axion string on which a domain wall ends must exist as an individual object (as opposed to a multi-string state), and it must be produced in the early universe. These conditions are often not satisfied in concrete models. Post-inflation axion models also face a potential problem from fractionally charged relics; solving this problem often leads to low-energy Landau poles for Standard Model gauge couplings, reintroducing the quality problem. We study several examples, finding that models that solve the quality problem face cosmological problems, and vice versa. This is not a no-go theorem; nonetheless, we argue that it is much more difficult than generally appreciated to find a viable post-inflation QCD axion model. Successful examples may have a nonstandard cosmological history (e.g., multiple types of cosmic axion strings of different tensions), undermining the widespread expectation that the post-inflation QCD axion scenario predicts a unique mass for axion dark matter.
arXiv comment34 pages, 3 figures. v2: references added, expanded discussion of Landau pole constraint, as published in JHEP
References in corpus (57)
- Axion Cosmology
- Axions In String Theory
- Planck-Scale Physics and the Peccei-Quinn Mechanism
- GRAVITY AND GLOBAL SYMMETRIES
- Solutions to the strong CP problem in a world with gravity
- The QCD Axion and Moduli Stabilisation
- Axion dark matter from topological defects
- Axions : Theory and Cosmological Role
- Axion Cosmology and the Energy Scale of Inflation
- Axions from Strings: the Attractive Solution
- More Axions from Strings
- Early-Universe Simulations of the Cosmological Axion
- Monopoles, Duality, and String Theory
- Production of dark matter axions from collapse of string-wall systems
- Redefining the Axion Window
- The dark-matter axion mass
- Evading the cosmological domain wall problem
- Discrete R symmetries for the MSSM and its singlet extensions
- Explicit de Sitter Flux Vacua for Global String Models with Chiral Matter
- Large-N bounds on, and compositeness limit of, gauge and gravitational interactions
- A unique Z_4^R symmetry for the MSSM
- Confinement in N=1 SUSY Gauge Theories and Model Building Tools
- Solving the Hierarchy Problem Discretely
- An even lighter QCD axion
- The Relic Abundance of Long-lived Heavy Colored Particles
- A QCD Axion from Higher Dimensional Gauge Field
- Supersymmetry, Axions and Cosmology
- Evolution of String-Wall Networks and Axionic Domain Wall Problem
- Collisions of strings with Y junctions
- Composite Accidental Axions
- Line Operators in the Standard Model
- Constraints on string networks with junctions
- Natural R-Parity, μ-term, and Fermion Mass Hierarchy From Discrete Gauge Symmetries
- Accidental Peccei-Quinn symmetry protected to arbitrary order
- Stabilizing the Axion by Discrete Gauge Symmetries
- The strong CP problem versus Planck scale physics
- How to simulate global cosmic strings with large string tension
- Analytic scaling solutions for cosmic domain walls
- Global anomalies in the Standard Model(s) and Beyond
- Automatic Peccei-Quinn symmetry
- Hadronic Axion Model in Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking
- Axion quality from the (anti)symmetric of SU(N)
- String theoretic QCD axions in the light of PLANCK and BICEP2
- On axionic dark matter in Type IIA string theory
- Non-intercommuting Cosmic Strings
- The meso-inflationary QCD axion
- Chiral models of composite axions and accidental Peccei-Quinn symmetry
- Ruling out light axions: the writing is on the wall
- Non Intercommuting Configurations in the Collisions of Type-I Cosmic Strings
- Gravity safe, electroweak natural axionic solution to strong CP and SUSY mu problems
- Axions in String Theory Slaying the Hydra of Dark Radiation
- Scalar gauge dynamics and Dark Matter
- Mixed Mediation of Supersymmetry Breaking with Anomalous U(1) Gauge Symmetry
- A Heterotic QCD Axion
- Opening up a window on the postinflationary QCD axion
- New Type of String Solutions with Long Range Forces
- Dynamics of Superconformal Axion: Quality and Scalegenesis