2025/05/13 by Tony Gherghetta, Hitoshi Murayama, Gherghetta, Tony +3 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Random lasers and scattering media
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2505.08866
openalex publication_date 2025/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a composite QCD axion model where the Peccei--Quinn (PQ) symmetry emerges as a high-quality, accidental symmetry. The axion potential is only modified by eight-fermion, dimension 12 operators, which if present at the Planck scale, allow for axion dark matter from misalignment while solving the strong CP problem. The model is an SU(Nc) gauge theory with ten flavors where the Pati--Salam unified subgroup SO(6)× SO(4) ⊂ SU(10)L and Sp(10)⊂ SU(10)R are weakly gauged. The dynamics breaks SU(10)L× SU(10)R → SU(10)V and the weakly-gauged groups to U(3)× U(2) ⊃ SU(3)c × SU(2)L × U(1)Y, with the QCD axion identified as one of the Nambu-Goldstone bosons. This axion has a relatively large coupling to photons while a residual θ\rm eff may be just below the current limit on the neutron electric dipole moment. If the dimension 12 operators are present near the GUT scale, they can cause domain wall networks to decay, allowing for axion dark matter even for the post-inflationary scenario.