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Authors
A. Ringwald
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We review the physics case for very weakly coupled ultralight particles beyond the Standard Model, in particular for axions and axion-like particles (ALPs): (i) the axionic solution of the strong CP problem and its embedding in well motivated extensions of the Standard Model; (ii) the possibility that the cold dark matter in the Universe is comprised of axions and ALPs; (iii) the ALP explanation of the anomalous transparency of the Universe for TeV photons; and (iv) the axion or ALP explanation of the anomalous energy loss of white dwarfs. Moreover, we present an overview of ongoing and near-future laboratory experiments searching for axions and ALPs: haloscopes, helioscopes, and light-shining-through-a-wall experiments.
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Ultralight scalar dark matter can interact with all massive Standard Model particles through a universal coupling. Such a coupling modifies the Standard Model particle masses and affects the dynamics of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We model the cosmological evolution of the dark matter, taking into account the modifications of the scalar mass by the environment as well as the full dynamics of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. We find that precision measurements of the helium-4 abundance set stringent constraints on the available parameter space, and that these constraints are strongly affected by both the dark matter environmental mass and the dynamics of the neutron freeze-out. Furthermore, we perform the analysis in both the Einstein and Jordan frames, the latter of which allows us to implement the model into numerical Big Bang Nucleosynthesis codes and analyze additional light elements. The numerical analysis shows that the constraint from helium-4 dominates over deuterium, and that the effect on lithium is insufficient to solve the lithium problem. Comparing to several other probes, we find that Big Bang Nucleosynthesis sets the strongest constraints for the majority of the parameter space.
Starting from the evidence that dark matter indeed exists and permeates the entire cosmos, various bounds on its properties can be estimated. Beginning with the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure, we summarize bounds on the ultralight bosonic dark matter (UBDM) mass and cosmic density. These bounds are extended to larger masses by considering galaxy formation and evolution, and the phenomenon of black hole superradiance. We then discuss the formation of different classes of UBDM compact objects including solitons/axion stars and miniclusters. Next, we consider astrophysical constraints on the couplings of UBDM to Standard Model particles, from stellar cooling (production of UBDM) and indirect searches (decays or conversion of UBDM). Throughout, there are short discussions of hints and opportunities in searching for UBDM in each area.
A number of proposed and ongoing experiments search for axion dark matter with a mass nearing the limit set by small scale structure (${cal O} ( 10 ^{ - 21 } {rm eV} ) $). We consider the late universe cosmology of these models, showing that requiring the axion to have a matter-power spectrum that matches that of cold dark matter constrains the magnitude of the axion couplings to the visible sector. Comparing these limits to current and future experimental efforts, we find that many searches require axions with an abnormally large coupling to Standard Model fields, independently of how the axion was populated in the early universe. We survey mechanisms that can alleviate the bounds, namely, the introduction of large charges, various forms of kinetic mixing, a clockwork structure, and imposing a discrete symmetry. We provide an explicit model for each case and explore their phenomenology and viability to produce detectable ultralight axion dark matter.
We report on the possibility that the Dark Matter particle is a stable, neutral, as-yet-undiscovered hadron in the standard model. The existence of a compact color-flavor-spin singlet sexaquark (S, uuddss) with mass ~2m_p, is compatible with current knowledge. The S interacts with baryons primarily via a Yukawa interaction of coupling strength alpha_SN, mediated by omega and phi vector mesons having mass ~1 GeV. If it exists, the S is a very attractive DM candidate. The relic abundance of S Dark Matter (SDM) is established when the Universe transitions from the quark-gluon plasma to the hadronic phase at ~150 MeV and is in remarkable agreement with the observed Omega_DM/Omega_b = 5.3+-0.1; this is a no-free-parameters result because the relevant parameters are known from QCD. Survival of this relic abundance to low temperature requires the breakup amplitude gtilde <~ 2 10^-6, comfortably compatible with theory expectations and observational bounds because the breakup amplitude is dynamically suppressed and many orders of magnitude smaller, as we show. The scattering cross section can differ by orders of magnitude from Born approximation, depending on alpha_SN, requiring reanalysis of observational limits. We use direct detection experiments and cosmological constraints to determine the allowed region of alpha_SN. For a range of allowed values, we predict exotic nuclear isotopes at a detectable level with mass offset ~2 amu. The most promising approaches for detecting the sexaquark in accelerator experiments are to search for a long-interaction-length neutral particle component in the central region of relativistic heavy ion collisions or using a beam-dump setup, and to search for evidence of missing particle production characterized by unbalanced baryon number and strangeness using Belle-II or possibly GLUEX at J-Lab.
Within the standard propagation scenario, the flavor ratios of high-energy cosmic neutrinos at neutrino telescopes are expected to be around the democratic benchmark resulting from hadronic sources, $left( 1 : 1 : 1 right)_oplus$. We show how the coupling of neutrinos to an ultralight dark matter complex scalar field would induce an effective neutrino mass that could lead to adiabatic neutrino propagation. This would result in the preservation at the detector of the production flavor composition of neutrinos at sources. This effect could lead to flavor ratios at detectors well outside the range predicted by the standard scenario of averaged oscillations. We also present an electroweak-invariant model that would lead to the required effective interaction between neutrinos and dark matter.
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