A heavy QCD axion and the mirror world
Abstract We study the mirror world with dark matter arising from the thermal freeze-out of the lightest, stable mirror particle — the mirror electron. The dark matter abundance is achieved for mirror electrons of mass 225 GeV, fixing the mirror electroweak scale near 108 GeV. This highly predictive...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SpringerOpen
2024-02-01
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| Series: | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2024)212 |
| _version_ | 1797276040987410432 |
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| author | David I. Dunsky Lawrence J. Hall Keisuke Harigaya |
| author_facet | David I. Dunsky Lawrence J. Hall Keisuke Harigaya |
| author_sort | David I. Dunsky |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract We study the mirror world with dark matter arising from the thermal freeze-out of the lightest, stable mirror particle — the mirror electron. The dark matter abundance is achieved for mirror electrons of mass 225 GeV, fixing the mirror electroweak scale near 108 GeV. This highly predictive scenario is realized by an axion that acts as a portal between the two sectors through its coupling to the QCD and mirror QCD sectors. The axion is more massive than the standard QCD axion due to additional contributions from mirror strong dynamics. Still, the strong CP problem is solved by this ‘heavy’ axion due to the alignment of the QCD and mirror QCD potentials. Mirror entropy is transferred into the Standard Model sector via the axion portal, which alleviates overproduction of dark radiation from mirror glueball decays. This mirror scenario has a variety of signals: (1) primordial gravitational waves from the first-order mirror QCD phase transition occurring at a temperature near 35 GeV, (2) effects on large-scale structure from dark matter self-interactions from mirror QED, (3) dark radiation affecting the cosmic microwave background, and (4) the rare kaon decay, K + → (π + + axion). The first two signals do not depend on any fundamental free parameters of the theory while the latter two depend on a single free parameter, the axion decay constant. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T15:22:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-221d7f2a3b14483b8cb37b91e458d38d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1029-8479 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T15:22:38Z |
| publishDate | 2024-02-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-221d7f2a3b14483b8cb37b91e458d38d2024-03-05T17:30:00ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792024-02-012024213410.1007/JHEP02(2024)212A heavy QCD axion and the mirror worldDavid I. Dunsky0Lawrence J. Hall1Keisuke Harigaya2Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York UniversityDepartment of Physics, University of CaliforniaDepartment of Physics, University of ChicagoAbstract We study the mirror world with dark matter arising from the thermal freeze-out of the lightest, stable mirror particle — the mirror electron. The dark matter abundance is achieved for mirror electrons of mass 225 GeV, fixing the mirror electroweak scale near 108 GeV. This highly predictive scenario is realized by an axion that acts as a portal between the two sectors through its coupling to the QCD and mirror QCD sectors. The axion is more massive than the standard QCD axion due to additional contributions from mirror strong dynamics. Still, the strong CP problem is solved by this ‘heavy’ axion due to the alignment of the QCD and mirror QCD potentials. Mirror entropy is transferred into the Standard Model sector via the axion portal, which alleviates overproduction of dark radiation from mirror glueball decays. This mirror scenario has a variety of signals: (1) primordial gravitational waves from the first-order mirror QCD phase transition occurring at a temperature near 35 GeV, (2) effects on large-scale structure from dark matter self-interactions from mirror QED, (3) dark radiation affecting the cosmic microwave background, and (4) the rare kaon decay, K + → (π + + axion). The first two signals do not depend on any fundamental free parameters of the theory while the latter two depend on a single free parameter, the axion decay constant.https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2024)212Axions and ALPsCosmology of Theories BSMModels for Dark Matter |
| spellingShingle | David I. Dunsky Lawrence J. Hall Keisuke Harigaya A heavy QCD axion and the mirror world Journal of High Energy Physics Axions and ALPs Cosmology of Theories BSM Models for Dark Matter |
| title | A heavy QCD axion and the mirror world |
| title_full | A heavy QCD axion and the mirror world |
| title_fullStr | A heavy QCD axion and the mirror world |
| title_full_unstemmed | A heavy QCD axion and the mirror world |
| title_short | A heavy QCD axion and the mirror world |
| title_sort | heavy qcd axion and the mirror world |
| topic | Axions and ALPs Cosmology of Theories BSM Models for Dark Matter |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2024)212 |
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