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Dark matter from an even lighter QCD axion: trapped misalignment

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arxiv 2102.01082 v2 pith:JNJCAX4T submitted 2021-02-01 hep-ph astro-ph.CO

classification hep-phastro-ph.CO
keywords axionmisalignmenttrappeddarkmattermathcalevenfirst
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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abstract

We show that dark matter can be accounted for by an axion that solves the strong CP problem, but is much lighter than usual due to a $Z_\mathcal{N}$ symmetry. The whole mass range from the canonical QCD axion down to the ultra-light regime is allowed, with $3\le\mathcal{N}\lesssim65$. This includes the first proposal of a "fuzzy dark matter" QCD axion with $m_a\sim10^{-22}$ eV. A novel misalignment mechanism occurs --{\it trapped misalignment}-- due to the peculiar temperature dependence of the $Z_{\mathcal{N}}$ axion potential. The dark matter relic density is enhanced because the axion field undergoes two stages of oscillations: it is first trapped in the wrong minimum, which effectively delays the onset of true oscillations. Trapped misalignment is more general than the setup discussed here, and may hold whenever an extra source of Peccei-Quinn breaking appears at high temperatures. Furthermore, it will be shown that trapped misalignment can dynamically source the recently proposed kinetic misalignment mechanism. All the parameter space is within tantalizing reach of the experimental projects for the next decades. For instance, even Phase I of CASPEr-Electric could discover this axion.

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Forward citations

Cited by 7 Pith papers

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