Axion Dark Matter Archaeology with Primordial Gravitational Waves

Abstract

We investigate the complementary information to be gained from inflationary gravitational wave (IGW) signals and searches for QCD axion dark matter. We focus on post-inflationary Peccei-Quinn (PQ) breaking axion models that are cosmologically safe. Recent work has shown that a greater number of such models exist. This is because the heavy quarks required for the colour anomaly can provoke a period of heavy quark domination (HQD), which, through decay, dilutes the axion abundance. In this work we show for the first time that the axion dark matter mass can be as low as $m_a\sim 10^{-8}\mathrm{eV}$ for models where the heavy quarks decay via dimension 6 terms. This is achieved by allowing the mass of the heavy quarks to differ from the axion decay constant, $m_Q\ne f_a$. Consequently, the observables that would distinguish between pre- and post-inflationary PQ breaking, $m_a$ and the additional relativistic degrees of freedom $\Delta N_{\mathrm{eff}}$, now become indiscernible. To solve this, we propose using blue-tilted IGWs to probe HQD. In scenarios where such a blue tilt is present, the enhanced GW signal allows future interferometers to place non-trivial constraints on the parameters $m_Q$ and $f_a$, thereby complementing haloscope searches. While some degeneracies with other parameters such as $m_Q$ remain, detectors such as BBO and ET will be able to optimistically probe $f_a\gtrsim 10^{14}\mathrm{GeV}$.

arXiv comment20 pages (with appendix and references), 12 figures. Minor changes: nT-r plot is added (Fig. 4), appendix B is added. Main results remain same. Version accepted for Phys. Rev. D

References in corpus (138)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• Advanced Virgo: a 2nd generation interferometric gravitational wave detector
• Advanced LIGO
• GW151226: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a 22-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• GW170104: Observation of a 50-Solar-Mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence at Redshift 0.2
• GW170814: A Three-Detector Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• Axion Cosmology
• The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts
• GW170608: Observation of a 19-solar-mass Binary Black Hole Coalescence
• Sensitivity Studies for Third-Generation Gravitational Wave Observatories
• Gravitational Wave Experiments and Early Universe Cosmology
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis: 2015
• A Joint Analysis of BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck Data
• BICEP / Keck XIII: Improved Constraints on Primordial Gravitational Waves using Planck, WMAP, and BICEP/Keck Observations through the 2018 Observing Season
• Possibility of Direct Measurement of the Acceleration of the Universe Using 0.1 Hz Band Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Antenna in Space
• Science with the space-based interferometer eLISA. II: Gravitational waves from cosmological phase transitions
• Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis and Hadronic Decay of Long-Lived Massive Particles
• The NANOGrav 15-year Data Set: Search for Signals from New Physics
• The NANOGrav 12.5-year Data Set: Search For An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• The QCD axion, precisely
• Detecting a stochastic background of gravitational radiation: Signal processing strategies and sensitivities
• The Cold Dark Matter Density Perturbation
• A SQUID-based microwave cavity search for dark-matter axions
• The landscape of QCD axion models
• Sensitivity curves for searches for gravitational-wave backgrounds
• Open data from the first and second observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo
• KAGRA: 2.5 Generation Interferometric Gravitational Wave Detector
• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits On An Isotropic Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background
• G-inflation: inflation driven by the Galileon field
• Detecting the Cosmic Gravitational Wave Background with the Big Bang Observer
• Detector configuration of DECIGO/BBO and identification of cosmological neutron-star binaries
• Extended Search for the Invisible Axion with the Axion Dark Matter Experiment
• The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
• Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Hadronically and Electromagnetically Decaying Relic Neutral Particles
• The NANOGrav 11-year Data Set: Pulsar-timing Constraints On The Stochastic Gravitational-wave Background
• Fundamental Physics with the Square Kilometre Array
• Science with the Square Kilometer Array: Motivation, Key Science Projects, Standards and Assumptions
• Axion dark matter from topological defects
• SPT-3G: A Next-Generation Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Experiment on the South Pole Telescope
• Results from phase 1 of the HAYSTAC microwave cavity axion experiment
• The ORGAN Experiment: An axion haloscope above 15 GHz
• Naturally inflating on steep potentials through electromagnetic dissipation
• Axion Cosmology Revisited
• Upper Limits on the Stochastic Gravitational-Wave Background from Advanced LIGO's First Observing Run
• Particle production during inflation and gravitational waves detectable by ground-based interferometers
• Probing the early universe with inflationary gravitational waves
• New Sensitivity Curves for Gravitational-Wave Signals from Cosmological Phase Transitions
• Neutrino Physics from the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure
• Primordial gravitational waves, precisely: The role of thermodynamics in the Standard Model
• The First Three Seconds: a Review of Possible Expansion Histories of the Early Universe
• IndIGO and LIGO-India: Scope and Plans for Gravitational Wave Research and Precision Metrology in India
• Revisiting Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Long-Lived Decaying Particles
• Tensor Perturbations in Inflationary Models as a Probe of Cosmology
• The Beam and detector of the NA62 experiment at CERN
• European Pulsar Timing Array Limits on Continuous Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries
• Improved axion emissivity from a supernova via nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung
• Redefining the Axion Window
• Relating gravitational wave constraints from primordial nucleosynthesis, pulsar timing, laser interferometers, and the CMB: implications for the early universe
• Dark, Cold, and Noisy: Constraining Secluded Hidden Sectors with Gravitational Waves
• Probing reheating temperature of the universe with gravitational wave background
• Quark Flavor Phenomenology of the QCD Axion
• First Results from Axion Haloscope at CAPP around 10.7 $\mu$eV
• Tensor Modes from a Primordial Hagedorn Phase of String Cosmology
• The search for low-mass axion dark matter with ABRACADABRA-10cm
• Search for invisible axion dark matter of mass m${}_a=43\mu$eV with the QUAX--$a\gamma$ experiment
• Precision calculations of the gravitational wave background spectrum from inflation
• Searching for a Stochastic Background of Gravitational Waves with LIGO
• A new experimental approach to probe QCD axion dark matter in the mass range above 40$\mu$eV
• Improved estimation of radiated axions from cosmological axionic strings
• All-sky search for gravitational-wave bursts in the first joint LIGO-GEO-Virgo run
• Axion cold dark matter in non-standard cosmologies
• Can Decaying Particles Raise the Upperbound on the Peccei-Quinn Scale?
• Exploring Cosmic Origins with CORE: Survey requirements and mission design
• Blue Tensor Spectrum from Particle Production during Inflation
• Blue-tilted Tensor Spectrum and Thermal History of the Universe
• Probing the equation of state of the early universe with a space laser interferometer
• Prospects for direct detection of primordial gravitational waves
• Axion Gauge Field Inflation and Gravitational Leptogenesis: A Lower Bound on B Modes from the Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry of the Universe
• Prospects for determination of thermal history after inflation with future gravitational wave detectors
• Axion Searches with Microwave Filters: the RADES project
• Axion Radiation from Strings
• Higgsed Chromo-Natural Inflation
• Observing Invisible Axions with Gravitational Waves
• Bounds on long-lived charged massive particles from Big Bang nucleosynthesis
• Enhancing Inflationary Tensor Modes through Spectator Fields
• A Refined Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Inflationary Theoretical Framework
• Projected Sensitivity of DMRadio-m${}^3$: A Search for the QCD Axion Below $1\mu$eV
• Primordial Black Holes from the QCD axion
• Decoding the phases of early and late time reheating through imprints on primordial gravitational waves
• Blue-tilted inflationary tensor spectrum and reheating in the light of NANOGrav results
• Probing the Early Universe with Axion Physics and Gravitational Waves
• Inflation with violation of the null energy condition
• Probing the size of extra dimension with gravitational wave astronomy
• Spatially Resolved Interstellar Medium and Highly-Excited Dense Molecular Gas in the Most Luminous Quasar at z=6.327
• Axion Cosmology with Early Matter Domination
• Updated Constraints and Forecasts on Primordial Tensor Modes
• Primordial Gravitational Wave Signals in Modified Cosmologies
• Upper limits on a stochastic gravitational-wave background using LIGO and Virgo interferometers at 600-1000 Hz
• Multi-wavelength constraints on the inflationary consistency relation
• Primordial Black Hole Archaeology with Gravitational Waves from Cosmic Strings
• Non-Gaussianity from Axion-Gauge Fields Interactions during Inflation
• Higgsed Gauge-flation
• Search for galactic axions with a traveling wave parametric amplifier
• Blue-tilted Primordial Gravitational Waves from Massive Gravity
• Strong Planck constraints on braneworld and non-commutative inflation
• New confining force solution of QCD axion domain wall problem
• Gravitational Wave Background and Non-Gaussianity as a Probe of the Curvaton Scenario
• Inflaton phenomenology via reheating in light of primordial gravitational waves and the latest BICEP/$Keck$ data
• The future search for low-frequency axions and new physics with the FLASH resonant cavity experiment at Frascati National Laboratories
• The Interplay between the Dark Matter Axion and Primordial Black Holes
• Search for Axion dark matter with the QUAX-LNF tunable haloscope
• Fingerprint of GeV scale right-handed neutrinos on inflationary gravitational waves and PTA data
• Cosmic implications of a low-scale solution to the axion domain wall problem
• Impact of high-scale Seesaw and Leptogenesis on inflationary tensor perturbations as detectable gravitational waves
• Early Universe Tomography with CMB and Gravitational Waves
• A proposal for a low-frequency axion search in the 1-2 $\mu$eV range and below with the BabyIAXO magnet
• First results from a second generation galactic axion experiment
• Extended Axion Dark Matter Search Using the CAPP18T Haloscope
• Inflationary Gravitational Waves and the Evolution of the Early Universe
• First Scan Search for Dark Photon Dark Matter with a Tunable Superconducting Radio-Frequency Cavity
• Gravitational Waves-Tomography of Low-Scale-Leptogenesis
• Dark Matter Axions in the Early Universe with a Period of Increasing Temperature
• Cosmic string gravitational waves from global $U(1{)}_{B-L}$ symmetry breaking as a probe of the type I seesaw scale
• Slaying Axion-Like Particles via Gravitational Waves and Primordial Black Holes from Supercooled Phase Transition
• Enhanced primordial gravitational waves from a stiff post-inflationary era due to an oscillating inflaton
• On the high-scale instanton interference effect: axion models without domain wall problem
• First search for dark photon dark matter with a MADMAX prototype
• Tomography of flavoured leptogenesis with primordial blue gravitational waves
• Inflation and Mixed Dark Matter Models
• The Flavor of QCD Axion Dark Matter
• Revisiting signatures of thermal axions in nonstandard cosmologies
• Primordial Gravitational Waves as Probe of Dark Matter in Interferometer Missions: Fisher Forecast and MCMC
• MiMeS: Misalignment Mechanism Solver
• Probing flavor violation and baryogenesis via primordial gravitational waves
• Catalogues of Cosmologically Self-Consistent Hadronic QCD Axion Models
• Using $\Delta N_{\mathrm{eff}}$ to constrain preferred axion model dark matter
• Complementarity between Cosmic String Gravitational Waves and long-lived particle searches in a laboratory