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Axions have for some time been considered a plausible candidate for dark matter. They can be produced through misalignment, but it has been argued that when inflation occurs before a Peccei-Quinn transition, appreciable production can result from cosmic strings. This has been the subject of extensive simulations. But there are reasons to be skeptical about the possible role of axion strings. We review and elaborate on these questions, and argue that parametrically strings are already accounted for by the assumption of random misalignment angles. The arguments are base on considerations of the collective modes of the string solutions, on computations of axion radiation in particular models, and reviews of simulations.
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ALP domain walls without strings may be formed in the early Universe. We point out that such ALP domain walls lead to both isotropic and anisotropic birefringence of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization, which reflects spatial configuration of the domain walls at the recombination. The polarization plane of the CMB photon coming from each domain is either not rotated at all or rotated by a fixed angle. For domain walls following the scaling solution, the cosmic birefringence of CMB is characterized by $2^{N}$, i.e. $N$-bit, of information with $N = {cal O}(10^{3-4})$ being equal to the number of domains at the last scattering surface, and thus the name, $kilobyte~ cosmic~ birefringence$. The magnitude of the isotropic birefringence is consistent with the recently reported value, while the anisotropic one is determined by the structure of domains at the last scattering surface. The predicted cosmic birefringence is universal over a wide range of the ALP mass and coupling to photons. The detection of both signals will be a smoking-gun evidence for the ALP domain walls without strings.
In this contribution, we discuss the cosmological scenario where unstable domain walls are formed in the early universe and their late-time annihilation produces a significant amount of gravitational waves. After describing cosmological constraints on long-lived domain walls, we estimate the typical amplitude and frequency of gravitational waves observed today. We also review possible extensions of the standard model of particle physics that predict the formation of unstable domain walls and can be probed by observation of relic gravitational waves. It is shown that recent results of pulser timing arrays and direct detection experiments partially exclude the relevant parameter space, and that a much wider parameter space can be covered by the next generation of gravitational wave observatories.
Axion couplings to photons could induce photon-axion conversion in the presence of magnetic fields in the Universe. The conversion could impact various cosmic distance measurements such as luminosity distances to type Ia supernovae and angular distances to galaxy clusters in different ways. We consider different combinations of the most updated distance measurements to constrain the axion-photon coupling. Ignoring the conversion in intracluster medium (ICM), we find the upper bounds on axion-photon couplings to be around $5 times 10^{-12}$ (nG/$B$) GeV$^{-1}$ for axion mass below $5 times 10^{-13}$ eV, where $B$ is the strength of the magnetic field in the intergalactic medium (IGM). When including the conversion in ICM, the upper bound gets stronger and could reach $5 times 10^{-13} $GeV$^{-1}$ for $m_a < 5 times 10^{-12}$ eV. While this stronger bound moderately depends on the ICM modeling, it is independent of the IGM parameters. All the bounds are determined by the shape of Hubble rate as a function of redshift reconstructable from various distance measurements, and insensitive to todays Hubble rate, of which there is a tension between early and late cosmological measurements. As an appendix, we discuss model building challenges to use photon-axion conversion to make type Ia supernovae brighter to alleviate the Hubble problem/crisis.
The recent electron recoil excess observed by XENON1T has a possible interpretation in terms of solar axions coupled to electrons. If such axions are still relativistic at recombination they would also leave a cosmic imprint in the form of an additional radiation component, parameterized by an effective neutrino number $Delta N_text{eff}$. We explore minimal scenarios with a detectable signal in future CMB surveys: axions coupled democratically to all fermions, axion-electron coupling generated radiatively, the DFSZ framework for the QCD axion. The predicted $Delta N_text{eff}$ is larger than $0.03-0.04$ for all cases, close to the $2sigma$ forecasted sensitivity of CMB-S4 experiments. This opens the possibility of testing with cosmological observations the solar axion interpretation of the XENON1T excess.
Cosmic strings are predicted by many field-theory models, and may have been formed at a symmetry-breaking transition early in the history of the universe, such as that associated with grand unification. They could have important cosmological effects. Scenarios suggested by fundamental string theory or M-theory, in particular the popular idea of brane inflation, also strongly suggest the appearance of similar structures. Here we review the reasons for postulating the existence of cosmic strings or superstrings, the various possible ways in which they might be detected observationally, and the special features that might discriminate between ordinary cosmic strings and superstrings.
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