No Arabic abstract
We present a 5D axion-neutrino model that explains the Standard Model fermion mass hierarchy and flavor structure, while simultaneously generating a high-quality axion. The axion and right-handed neutrinos transform under a 5D Peccei-Quinn gauge symmetry, and have highly suppressed profiles on the UV brane where the symmetry is explicitly broken. This setup allows neutrinos to be either Dirac, or Majorana with hierarchically small sterile neutrino masses. The axion decay constant originates from the IR scale, which in the holographically dual 4D description corresponds to the confinement scale of some new strong dynamics with a high-quality global Peccei-Quinn symmetry that produces a composite axion and light, composite sterile neutrinos. The sterile neutrinos could be observed in astrophysical or laboratory experiments, and the model predicts specific axion--neutrino couplings.
We aim to explain the nature of neutrinos using Peccei-Quinn symmetry. We discuss two simple scenarios, one based on a type-II Dirac seesaw and the other in a one-loop neutrino mass generation, which solve the strong CP problem and naturally lead to Dirac neutrinos. In the first setup latest neutrino mass limit gives rise to axion which is in the reach of conventional searches. Moreover, we have both axion as well as WIMP dark mater for our second set up.
The strong CP problem is a compelling motivation for physics beyond the Standard Model. The most popular solutions invoke a global Peccei-Quinn symmetry, but are challenged by quantum gravitational corrections which are thought to be incompatible with global symmetries, arguing that realistic theories contain additional structure. We explore a construction in which the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is protected to arbitrary order by virtue of a supersymmetric, confining $SU(N)_L times SU(N) times SU(N)_R times U(1)_X$ product gauge group, achieving $bartheta < 10^{-11}$ for an $SU(5)$ model with $f_a lesssim 3 times 10^{11}$ GeV. This construction leads to low energy predictions such as a $U(1)_X$ gauge symmetry, and for $X = B-L$ engineers a naturally order ~TeV value for the $mu$ parameter of the MSSM.
We show that the required high quality of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry can be naturally explained in the aligned QCD axion models where the QCD axion arises from multiple axions with decay constants much smaller than the axion window, e.g., around the weak scale. Even in the presence of general Planck-suppressed Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking operators, the effective strong CP phase remains sufficiently small in contrast to the standard axion models without the alignment. The QCD axion potential has small or large modulations due to the symmetry breaking operators, which can significantly affect the axion cosmology. When the axions are trapped in different minima, domain walls appear and their scaling behavior suppresses the axion isocurvature perturbations at super-horizon scales. Our scenario predicts many axions and saxions coupled to gluons, and they may be searched for at collider experiments. In particular, the recently found diphoton excess at 750 GeV could be due to one of such (s)axions.
In the Standard Model, the renormalization of the QCD vacuum angle $theta$ is extremely tiny, and small $theta$ is technically natural. In the general Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT), however, $Deltatheta$ is quadratically divergent, reflecting the fact that new sources of hadronic CP-violation typically produce $mathcal O(1)$ threshold corrections to $theta$. The observation of such CP-violating interactions would therefore be in tension with solutions to the strong CP problem in which $theta=0$ is an ultraviolet boundary condition, pointing to the Peccei-Quinn mechanism as the explanation for why $theta$ is small in the infrared. We study the quadratic divergences in $theta$ arising from dimension-6 SMEFT operators and discuss the discovery prospects for these operators at electric dipole moment experiments, the LHC, and future proton-proton colliders.
Baryon number is an accidental symmetry in the standard model, while Peccei-Quinn symmetry is hypothetical symmetry which is introduced to solve the strong CP problem. We study the possible connections between Peccei-Quinn symmetry and baryon number symmetry. In this framework, an axion is identified as the Nambu-Goldstone boson of baryon number violation. As a result, characteristic baryon number violating processes are predicted. We developed the general method to determine the baryon number and lepton number of new scalar in the axion model.