Pith. sign in

REVIEW 8 cited by

Cosmological constraints on decaying axion-like particles: a global analysis

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 2205.13549 v2 pith:DKDZKMNN submitted 2022-05-26 astro-ph.CO hep-ph

Cosmological constraints on decaying axion-like particles: a global analysis

classification astro-ph.CO hep-ph
keywords alpscosmologicalglobalanalysisaxion-likeboundconstraintsdecaying
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

Axion-like particles (ALPs) decaying into photons are known to affect a wide range of astrophysical and cosmological observables. In this study we focus on ALPs with masses in the keV-MeV range and lifetimes between $10^4$ and $10^{13}$ seconds, corresponding to decays between the end of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and the formation of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Using the CosmoBit module of the global fitting framework GAMBIT, we combine state-of-the-art calculations of the irreducible ALP freeze-in abundance, primordial element abundances (including photodisintegration through ALP decays), CMB spectral distortions and anisotropies, and constraints from supernovae and stellar cooling. This approach makes it possible for the first time to perform a global analysis of the ALP parameter space while varying the parameters of $\Lambda$CDM as well as several nuisance parameters. We find a lower bound on the ALP mass of around $m_a > 300\,\text{keV}$, which can only be evaded if ALPs are stable on cosmological timescales. Future observations of CMB spectral distortions with a PIXIE-like mission are expected to improve this bound by two orders of magnitude.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Forward citations

Cited by 8 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Numerical polology: towards next-generation model-building for cosmology

    astro-ph.CO 2026-06 conditional novelty 7.0

    A numerical polology sampler maps ghost- and tachyon-free regions of bosonic EFT coupling spaces and finds new particle branches, including a spin-one mode in general rank-2 tensor theories.

  2. Numerical polology: towards next-generation model-building for cosmology

    astro-ph.CO 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Numerical polology framework samples coupling space to discover ghost-free tensor field theories up to rank three for cosmology, then applies resulting priors to black hole superradiance, dynamical dark energy, and GW data.

  3. From Evidence to Evident: Decisive Cosmological Evidence for the Normal Neutrino Mass Hierarchy

    astro-ph.CO 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    DESI DR2 data constrain the neutrino mass sum below the inverted hierarchy minimum, yielding Bayes factor K>460 for normal hierarchy in standard cosmology.

  4. Cosmological constraints on TeV-scale dark matter subcomponents decaying between recombination and reionisation

    astro-ph.CO 2026-04 conditional novelty 6.0

    Future global 21-cm observations could beat CMB limits on TeV-scale decaying dark matter for lifetimes ≳10^15 s, especially for decays into neutrinos.

  5. Loop-Level Lepton Flavor Violation and Diphoton Signals in the Minimal Left-Right Symmetric Model

    hep-ph 2025-12 conditional novelty 6.0

    Recasting axion limits onto the one-loop H3 couplings of the minimal left-right symmetric model excludes the right-handed scale up to 2×10^9 GeV and could eventually probe 6×10^11 GeV.

  6. Neutron Star Eclipses as Axion Laboratories

    hep-ph 2025-04 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Using eclipse attenuation in the LMC X-4 neutron star binary, the authors set g_aγ ≤ 1.44 × 10^{-10} GeV^{-1} at 90% CL, surpassing current light-shining-through-walls bounds.

  7. Cosmological constraints on TeV-scale dark matter subcomponents decaying between recombination and reionisation

    astro-ph.CO 2026-04 conditional novelty 5.0

    Future 21-cm observations may constrain TeV-scale decaying dark matter subcomponents more tightly than CMB data for lifetimes above 10^15 s, with strongest sensitivity for neutrino decay channels due to differences in...

  8. Axions as Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Dark Radiation

    hep-ph 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 2.0

    A mini-review of axion phenomenology showing how light bosons can account for dark matter, drive cosmic acceleration, or contribute to relativistic backgrounds in the early and late Universe.