arXiv subjects

Fuminobu Takahashi

Publications and source records attributed to Fuminobu Takahashi.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

Enhanced axion-photon coupling in GUT with hidden photon

We show that the axion coupling to photons can be enhanced in simple models with a single Peccei-Quinn field, if the gauge coupling unification is realized by a large kinetic mixing $χ= {\cal O}(0.1)$ between hypercharge and unbroken hidden U(1)$_H$. The key observation is that the U(1)$_H$ gauge coupling should be rather strong to induce such large kinetic mixing, leading to enhanced contributions of hidden matter fields to the electromagnetic anomaly. We find that the axion-photon coupling is enhanced by about a factor of 10-100 with respect to the GUT-axion models with $E/N = 8/3$.

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arXiv2017

The sign of the dipole-dipole potential by axion exchange

We calculate a dipole-dipole potential between fermions mediated by a light pseudoscalar, axion, paying a particular attention to the overall sign. While the sign of the potential is physical and important for experiments to discover or constrain the axion coupling to fermions, there is often a sign error in the literature. The purpose of this short note is to clarify the sign issue of the axion-mediated dipole-dipole potential. As a by-product, we find a sign change of the dipole-dipole potenital due to the different spin of the mediating particle.

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arXiv2017

Neutrino CP phases from Sneutrino Chaotic Inflation

We study if the minimal sneutrino chaotic inflation is consistent with a flavor symmetry of the Froggatt-Nielsen type, to derive testable predictions on the Dirac and Majorana CP violating phases, $δ$ and $α$. For successful inflation, the two right-handed neutrinos, i.e., the inflaton and stabilizer fields, must be degenerate in mass. First we find that the lepton flavor symmetry structure becomes less manifest in the light neutrino masses in the seesaw mechanism, and this tendency becomes most prominent when right-handed neutrinos are degenerate. Secondly, the Dirac CP phase turns out to be sensitive to whether the shift symmetry breaking depends on the lepton flavor symmetry. When the flavor symmetry is imposed only on the stabilizer Yukawa couplings, distributions of the CP phases are peaked at $δ\simeq \pm π/4, \pm 3π/4$ and $α= 0$, while the vanishing and maximal Dirac CP phases are disfavored. On the other hand, when the flavor symmetry is imposed on both the inflaton and stabilizer Yukawa couplings, it is rather difficult to explain the observed neutrino data, and those parameters consistent with the observation prefer the vanishing CP phases $δ= 0, π$ and $α= 0$.

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arXiv2017

Adiabatic suppression of the axion abundance and isocurvature due to coupling to hidden monopoles

The string theory predicts many light fields called moduli and axions, which cause a cosmological problem due to the overproduction of their coherent oscillation after inflation. One of the prominent solutions is an adiabatic suppression mechanism, which, however, is non-trivial to achieve in the case of axions because it necessitates a large effective mass term which decreases as a function of time. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we provide an analytic method to calculate the cosmological abundance of coherent oscillation in a general situation under the adiabatic suppression mechanism. Secondly, we apply our method to some concrete examples, including the one where a string axion acquires a large effective mass due to the Witten effect in the presence of hidden monopoles.

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arXiv2017

The ALP miracle: unified inflaton and dark matter

We propose a scenario where both inflation and dark matter are described by a single axion-like particle (ALP) in a unified manner. In a class of the minimal axion hilltop inflation, the effective masses at the maximum and mimimum of the potential have equal magnitude but opposite sign, so that the ALP inflaton is light both during inflation and in the true vacuum. After inflation, most of the ALPs decay and evaporate into plasma through a coupling to photons, and the remaining ones become dark matter. We find that the observed CMB and matter power spectrum as well as the dark matter abundance point to an ALP of mass $m_ϕ= {\cal O}(0.01)$ eV and the axion-photon coupling $g_{ϕγγ} ={\cal O}(10^{-11})$GeV$^{-1}$: the ALP miracle. The suggested parameter region is within the reach of the next generation axion helioscope, IAXO. Furthermore, thermalized ALPs contribute to hot dark matter and its abundance is given in terms of the effective number of extra neutrino species, $ΔN_{\rm eff} \simeq 0.03$, which can be tested by the future CMB experiments. We also discuss a case with multiple ALPs, where the coupling to photons can be enhanced in the early Universe by an order of magnitude or more, which enlarges the parameter space for the ALP miracle. The heavy ALP plays a role of the waterfall field in hybrid inflation, and reheats the Universe, and it can be searched for in various experiments such as SHiP.

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arXiv2017

Dark Matter in Axion Landscape

If there are a plethora of axions in nature, they may have a complicated potential and create an axion landscape. We study a possibility that one of the axions is so light that it is cosmologically stable, explaining the observed dark matter density. In particular we focus on a case in which two (or more) shift-symmetry breaking terms conspire to make the axion sufficiently light at the potential minimum. In this case the axion has a flat-bottomed potential. In contrast to the case in which a single cosine term dominates the potential, the axion abundance as well as its isocurvature perturbations are significantly suppressed. This allows an axion with a rather large mass to serve as dark matter without fine-tuning of the initial misalignment, and further makes higher-scale inflation to be consistent with the scenario.

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arXiv2016

Gravitational waves from domain walls and their implications

We evaluate the impact of domain-wall annihilation on the currently ongoing and planned gravitational wave experiments, including a case in which domain walls experience a frictional force due to interactions with the ambient plasma. We show the sensitivity reach in terms of physical parameters, namely, the wall tension and the annihilation temperature. We find that a Higgs portal scalar, which stabilizes the Higgs potential at high energy scales, can form domain walls whose annihilation produces a large amount of gravitational waves within the reach of the advanced LIGO experiment (O5). Domain wall annihilation can also generate baryon asymmetry if the scalar is coupled to either SU(2)$_L$ gauge fields or the $(B-L)$ current. This is a variant of spontaneous baryogenesis, but it naturally avoids the isocurvature constraint due to the scaling behavior of the domain-wall evolution. We delineate the parameter space where the domain-wall baryogenesis works successfully and discuss its implications for the gravitational wave experiments.

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arXiv2016

Gauge Coupling Unification with Hidden Photon, and Minicharged Dark Matter

We show that gauge coupling unification is realized with a greater accuracy in the presence of a massless hidden photon which has a large kinetic mixing with hypercharge. We solve the renormalization group equations at two-loop level and find that the GUT unification scale is around $10^{16.5}$ GeV which sufficiently suppresses the proton decay rate, and that the unification is essentially determined by the kinetic mixing only, and it is rather insensitive to the hidden gauge coupling or the presence of vector-like matter fields charged under U(1)$_H$ and/or SU(5). Matter fields charged under the unbroken hidden U(1)$_H$ are stable and they contribute to dark matter. Interestingly, they become minicharged dark matter which carries a small but non-zero electric charge, if the hidden gauge coupling is tiny. The minicharged dark matter is a natural outcome of the gauge coupling unification with a hidden photon.

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arXiv2016

Cosmological Perturbations of Axion with a Dynamical Decay Constant

A QCD axion with a time-dependent decay constant has been known to be able to accommodate high-scale inflation without producing topological defects or too large isocurvature perturbations on CMB scales. We point out that a dynamical decay constant also has the effect of enhancing the small-scale axion isocurvature perturbations. The enhanced axion perturbations can even exceed the periodicity of the axion potential, and thus lead to the formation of axionic domain walls. Unlike the well-studied axionic walls, the walls produced from the enhanced perturbations are not bounded by cosmic strings, and thus would overclose the universe independently of the number of degenerate vacua along the axion potential.

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arXiv2016

Renormalization Group Improved Higgs Inflation with a Running Kinetic Term

We study a Higgs inflation model with a running kinetic term, taking account of the renormalization group evolution of relevant coupling constants. Specifically we study two types of the running kinetic Higgs inflation, where the inflaton potential is given by the quadratic or linear term potential in a frame where the Higgs field is canonically normalized. We solve the renormalization group equations at two-loop level and calculate the scalar spectral index and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. We find that, even if the renormalization group effects are included, the quadratic inflation is ruled out by the CMB observations, while the linear one is still allowed.

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arXiv2016

Quality of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry in the Aligned QCD Axion and Cosmological Implications

We show that the required high quality of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry can be naturally explained in the aligned QCD axion models where the QCD axion arises from multiple axions with decay constants much smaller than the axion window, e.g., around the weak scale. Even in the presence of general Planck-suppressed Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking operators, the effective strong CP phase remains sufficiently small in contrast to the standard axion models without the alignment. The QCD axion potential has small or large modulations due to the symmetry breaking operators, which can significantly affect the axion cosmology. When the axions are trapped in different minima, domain walls appear and their scaling behavior suppresses the axion isocurvature perturbations at super-horizon scales. Our scenario predicts many axions and saxions coupled to gluons, and they may be searched for at collider experiments. In particular, the recently found diphoton excess at 750 GeV could be due to one of such (s)axions.

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arXiv2016

Diphoton excess from hidden U(1) gauge symmetry with large kinetic mixing

We show that the 750 GeV diphoton excess can be explained by introducing vector-like quarks and hidden fermions charged under a hidden U(1) gauge symmetry, which has a relatively large coupling constant as well as a significant kinetic mixing with U(1)$_Y$. With the large kinetic mixing, the standard model gauge couplings unify around $10^{17}$ GeV, suggesting the grand unified theory without too rapid proton decay. Our scenario predicts events with a photon and missing transverse momentum, and its cross section is related to that for the diphoton excess through the kinetic mixing. We also discuss other possible collider signatures and cosmology, including various ways to evade constraints on exotic stable charged particles. In some cases where the 750 GeV diphoton excess is due to diaxion decays, our scenario also predicts triphoton and tetraphoton signals.

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arXiv2016

Topological Defects and nano-Hz Gravitational Waves in Aligned Axion Models

We study the formation and evolution of topological defects in an aligned axion model with multiple Peccei-Quinn scalars, where the QCD axion is realized by a certain combination of the axions with decay constants much smaller than the conventional Peccei-Quinn breaking scale. When the underlying U(1) symmetries are spontaneously broken, the aligned structure in the axion field space exhibits itself as a complicated string-wall network in the real space. We find that the string-wall network likely survives until the QCD phase transition if the number of the Peccei-Quinn scalars is greater than two. The string-wall system collapses during the QCD phase transition, producing a significant amount of gravitational waves in the nano-Hz range at present. The typical decay constant is constrained to be below O(100) TeV by the pulsar timing observations, and the constraint will be improved by a factor of 2 in the future SKA observations.

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arXiv2016

Viable Chaotic Inflation as a Source of Neutrino Masses and Leptogenesis

We show that the seesaw mechanism as well as leptogenesis are natural outcomes of a viable chaotic inflation in supergravity. The inflation model contains two superfields, the inflaton and stabilizer fields, which, being singlets under the standard model gauge symmetry, naturally couple to the lepton and Higgs doublets. The inflaton decays into leptons and Higgs fields, and the reheating temperature is predicted to be of O(10^{13}) GeV, for which thermal leptogenesis is possible. On the other hand, gravitinos are copiously produced, and various solutions to the gravitino problem are discussed. We also argue that, if the shift symmetry of the inflaton is explicitly broken down to a discrete one, neutrino Yukawa couplings are periodic in the inflaton field, and masses of leptons and Higgs do not blow up even if the inflaton takes super-Planckian field values. The inflaton potential is given by a sum of sinusoidal functions with different height and periodicity, the so-called multi-natural inflation. We show that the predicted scalar spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio lie in the region favored by the Planck data.

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arXiv2016

The QCD Axion from Aligned Axions and Diphoton Excess

We argue that the QCD axion can arise from many aligned axions with decay constants much smaller than the conventional axion window. If the typical decay constant is of {\cal O}{(100)} GeV to 1 TeV, one or more of the axions or saxions may account for the recently found diphoton excess at \sim 750 GeV. Our scenario predicts many axions and saxions coupled to gluons with decay constants of order the weak scale, and therefore many collider signatures by heavy axions and saxions will show up at different energy scales. In particular, if the inferred broad decay width is due to multiple axions or saxions, a non-trivial peak structure may become evident when more data is collected. We also discuss cosmological implications of the aligned QCD axion scenario. In the Appendix we give a possible UV completion and argue that the high quality of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is naturally explained in our scenario.

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arXiv2015

Suppressing the QCD Axion Abundance by Hidden Monopoles

We study the Witten effect of hidden monopoles on the QCD axion dynamics, and show that its abundance as well as isocurvature perturbations can be significantly suppressed if there is a sufficient amount of hidden monopoles. When the hidden monopoles make up a significant fraction of dark matter, the Witten effect suppresses the abundance of axion with the decay constant smaller than $10^{12}$ GeV. The cosmological domain wall problem of the QCD axion can also be avoided, relaxing the upper bound on the decay constant when the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is spontaneously broken after inflation.

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arXiv2015

Strongly broken Peccei-Quinn symmetry in the early Universe

We consider QCD axion models where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is badly broken by a larger amount in the past than in the present, in order to avoid the axion isocurvature problem. Specifically we study supersymmetric axion models where the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is dynamically broken by either hidden gauge interactions or the $SU(3)_c$ strong interactions whose dynamical scales are temporarily enhanced by the dynamics of flat directions. The former scenario predicts a large amount of self-interacting dark radiation as the hidden gauge symmetry is weakly coupled in the present Universe. We also show that the observed amount of baryon asymmetry can be generated by the QCD axion dynamics via spontaneous baryogenesis. We briefly comment on the case in which the PQ symmetry is broken by a non-minimal coupling to gravity.

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arXiv2015

The two-field regime of natural inflation

The simplest two-field completion of natural inflation has a regime in which both fields are active and in which its predictions are within the Planck 1-$σ$ confidence contour. We show this for the original model of natural inflation, in which inflation is achieved through the explicit breaking of a U(1) symmetry. We consider the case in which the mass coming from explicit breaking of this symmetry is comparable to that from spontaneous breaking, which we show is consistent with a hierarchy between the corresponding energy scales. While both masses are comparable when the observable modes left the horizon, the mass hierarchy is restored in the last e-foldings of inflation, rendering the predictions consistent with the isocurvature bounds. For completeness, we also study the predictions for the case in which there is a large hierarchy of masses and an initial period of inflation driven by the (heavy) radial field.

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