Cosmological tests of an axiverse-inspired quintessence field

Emami, Razieh; Grin, Daniel; Pradler, Josef; Raccanelli, Alvise; Kamionkowski, Marc

doi:10.1103/physrevd.93.123005

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 70 publications

(117 reference statements)

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“…On the other hand, ULAs still frozen today are a viable dark energy candidate [3,15]. Second, a statistical ensemble of such fields may alleviate the coincidence problem today [4,19,21,22]. This general scenario may also provide a way to connect the physics of cosmic inflation to our current period of accelerated expansion [21].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With a statistical ensemble of such fields (i.e. the 'axiverse') the universe may have gone through several periods of 'anomalous' expansion, alleviating the coincidence problem today [4,[19][20][21][22], and possibly reducing the Hubble constant tension [4] and explaining the anomalously low baryon temperature inferred by the EDGES experiment [5]. This general scenario may also provide a way to connect the physics of cosmic inflation to our current period of accelerated expansion [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cosmological implications of ultralight axionlike fields

et al. 2018

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Cosmological observations are used to test for imprints of an ultra-light axion-like field (ULA), with a range of potentials V (φ) ∝ [1−cos(φ/f)] n set by the axion-field value φ and decay constant f. Scalar field dynamics dictate that the field is initially frozen and then begins to oscillate around its minimum when the Hubble parameter drops below some critical value. For n = 1, once dynamical, the axion energy density dilutes as matter; for n = 2 it dilutes as radiation and for n = 3 it dilutes faster than radiation. Both the homogeneous evolution of the ULA and the dynamics of its linear perturbations are included, using an effective fluid approximation generalized from the usual n = 1 case. ULA models are parameterized by the redshift zc when the field becomes dynamical, the fractional energy density fz c ≡ Ωa(zc)/Ωtot(zc) in the axion field at zc, and the effective sound speed c 2 s. Using Planck, BAO and JLA data, constraints on fz c are obtained. ULAs are degenerate with dark energy for all three potentials if 1+zc 10. When 3×10 4 1+zc 10, fz c is constrained to be 0.004 for n = 1 and fz c 0.02 for the other two potentials. The constraints then relax with increasing zc. These results have implications for ULAs as a resolution to cosmological tensions, such as discrepant measurements of the Hubble constant, or the EDGES measurement of the global 21 cm signal.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cosmological implications of ultralight axionlike fields

et al. 2018

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“…Axion quintessence can be further probed by observables sensitive to its effect on the Hubble expansion (e.g. Amendola et al 2013;Marsh et al 2014a;Emami et al 2016;Smer-Barreto & Liddle 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using the full power of the cosmic microwave background to probe axion dark matter

Hložek

Marsh

Grin

2018

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The cosmic microwave background (CMB) places stringent constraints on models of dark matter (DM) that deviate from standard cold DM (CDM), and on initial conditions beyond the scalar adiabatic mode. Here, the full Planck data set (including anisotropies in temperature, E-mode polarisation, and lensing deflection) is used to test the possibility that some fraction of the DM is composed of ultralight axions (ULAs). This represents the first use of CMB lensing to test the ULA model. We find no evidence for a ULA component in the mass range 10 −33 ≤ m a ≤ 10 −24 eV. We put percent-level constraints on the ULA contribution to the DM, which improve by up to a factor of two compared to the case with temperature anisotropies alone. Axion DM also provides a low-energy window onto the high-energy physics of inflation through the interplay between the vacuum misalignment production of axions and isocurvature perturbations. We perform the first systematic investigation into the parameter space of ULA isocurvature, using an accurate isocurvature transfer function at all m a values. We precisely identify a "window of co-existence" for 10 −25 eV ≤ m a ≤ 10 −24 eV where the data allow, simultaneously, a ∼ 10% contribution of ULAs to the DM, and ∼ 1% contributions of isocurvature and tensors to the CMB power. ULAs in this window (and all lighter ULAs) are shown to be consistent with a high-energy-scale inflationary Hubble parameter, H I ∼ 10 14 GeV. The window of co-existence will be fully probed by proposed CMB Stage-IV observations with increased accuracy in the high-lensing power and low-E and B-mode polarisation. If ULAs in the window exist, this could allow for two independent measurements of H I in the CMB using the axion DM content and isocurvature, and the tensor contribution to B-modes.

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“…This effect can be mediated by an ultralight axion-like particles (ALPs, or simply "axions" in this work) that couples to the photon via a Chern-Simons coupling [1][2][3]. Such ALPs are a ubiquitous outcome of string theory compactifications [4]; they may account for the dark matter [5], or hold clues to the mystery of the Dark Energy [6,7]. Recently, Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Probing cosmic strings by reconstructing polarization rotation of the cosmic microwave background

Yin,

Dai,

Ferraro

2021

Preprint

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Cosmic birefringence-the rotation of the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons as they travel to the Earth-is a smoking gun for axion-like particles (ALPs) that interact with the photon. It has recently been suggested that topological defects in the ALP field called cosmic strings can cause polarization rotation in quantized amounts that are proportional to the electromagnetic chiral anomaly coefficient A, which holds direct information about physics at very high energies. In this work, we study the detectability of a random network of cosmic strings through estimating rotation using quadratic estimators (QEs). We show that the QE derived from the maximum likelihood estimator is equivalent to the recently proposed global-minimum-variance QE; the classic Hu-Okamoto QE equals the global-minimum-variance QE under special conditions, but is otherwise still nearly globally optimal. We calculate the sensitivity of QEs to cosmic birefringence from string networks, for the Planck satellite mission, as well as for third-and fourth-generation ground-based CMB experiments. Using published binned rotation power spectrum derived from the Planck 2015 polarization data, we obtain a constraint A 2 ξ 0 < 0.93 at the 95% confidence level, where ξ 0 is the total length of strings in units of the Hubble scale per Hubble volume, for a phenomenological but reasonable string network model describing a continuous distribution of string sizes. Looking forward, experiments such as the Simons Observatory and CMB-S4 will either discover or falsify the existence of an ALP string network for the theoretically plausible parameter space A 2 ξ 0 0.01.

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Cosmological tests of an axiverse-inspired quintessence field

Cited by 16 publications

References 70 publications

Cosmological implications of ultralight axionlike fields

Cosmological implications of ultralight axionlike fields

Using the full power of the cosmic microwave background to probe axion dark matter

Probing cosmic strings by reconstructing polarization rotation of the cosmic microwave background

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