No Arabic abstract
We examine the relaxion mechanism in string theory. An essential feature is that an axion winds over $N gg 1$ fundamental periods. In string theory realizations via axion monodromy, this winding number corresponds to a physical charge carried by branes or fluxes. We show that this monodromy charge backreacts on the compact space, ruining the structure of the relaxion action. In particular, the barriers generated by strong gauge dynamics have height $propto e^{-N}$, so the relaxion does not stop when the Higgs acquires a vev. Backreaction of monodromy charge can therefore spoil the relaxion mechanism. We comment on the limitations of technical naturalness arguments in this context.
Finite density effects can destabilize the metastable vacua in relaxion models. Focusing on stars as nucleation seeds, we derive the conditions that lead to the formation and runaway of a relaxion bubble of a lower energy minimum than in vacuum. The resulting late-time phase transition in the universe allows us to set new constraints on the parameter space of relaxion models. We also find that similar instabilities can be triggered by the large electromagnetic fields around rotating neutron stars.
We investigate cosmological constraints on the original relaxion scenario proposed by Graham, Kaplan and Rajendran. We first discuss the appropriate sign choice of the terms in the scalar potential, when the QCD axion is the relaxion with a relaxion-inflaton coupling proposed in the original paper. We next derive the cosmologically consistent ranges of the mass and a coupling of the relaxion for both the QCD relaxion and non-QCD relaxion. The mass range is obtained by $10^{-5}$ eV $ll m_{phi} lesssim 10^4$ eV. We also find that a strong correlation between the Hubble parameter at the relaxion stabilization and the scale $Lambda$ of non-QCD strong dynamics, which generates the non-perturbative relaxion cosine potential. For a higher relaxion mass, a large scale $Lambda$ becomes available. However, for its lower mass, $Lambda$ should be small and constructing such a particle physics model is challenging.
We propose a brane-world setup based on gauge/gravity duality that permits the simultaneous realisation of self-tuning of the cosmological constant and a stabilisation of the electroweak hierarchy. The Standard Model dynamics including the Higgs sector is confined to a flat 4-dimensional brane, embedded in a 5-dimensional bulk whose dynamics is governed by Einstein-dilaton-axion gravity. The inclusion of a dynamical bulk axion is new compared to previous implementations of the self-tuning mechanism. Because of the presence of the axion, the model generically exhibits a multitude of static solutions, with different values for the equilibrium position for the brane. Under mild assumptions regarding the dependence of brane parameters on bulk fields, a number of these solutions exhibit electroweak symmetry breaking with a hierarchically small Higgs mass as compared to the cutoff-scale of the brane theory. The realisation of self-tuning of the cosmological constant is generic and as efficient as in previous constructions without a bulk axion. Vacua with a hierarchically small Higgs mass can sometimes be found, regardless of whether the brane theory depends explicitly on the bulk axion. Because it is expected on general principles that the brane action will depend on the axion, the generation of solutions with a large hierarchy is a robust feature.
R-symmetries, which are needed for supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking in ORaifeartaigh models, often lead to SUSY runaway directions trough a complexified R-transformation. Non-R symmetries also lead to runaway directions in a similar way. This work investigates the occurrence of runaway directions of both SUSY and SUSY breaking types. We clarify previous issues on fractional charges and genericness, and make a refined statement on conditions for runaway directions related to either R-symmetries or non-R symmetries. We present a generic and anomaly-free model to show the existence of runaway directions related to non-R symmetries. We also comment on the possibility to combine the non-R symmetry case to the R-symmetry case by an R-charge redefinition.
We generalize the relation between discontinuities of scattering amplitudes and cut diagrams to cover sequential discontinuities (discontinuities of discontinuities) in arbitrary momentum channels. The new relations are derived using time-ordered perturbation theory, and hold at phase-space points where all cut momentum channels are simultaneously accessible. As part of this analysis, we explain how to compute sequential discontinuities as monodromies and explore the use of the monodromy group in characterizing the analytic properties of Feynman integrals. We carry out a number of cross-checks of our new formulas in polylogarithmic examples, in some cases to all loop orders.