Stacking the Deck: Gambling on a Light QCD Axion
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866917025674166272 |
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| author | Banerjee, Abhishek Buen-Abad, Manuel A. Hook, Anson |
| author_facet | Banerjee, Abhishek Buen-Abad, Manuel A. Hook, Anson |
| contents | We consider axions lighter than what their QCD couplings might otherwise suggest. Starting with a $\mathbb{Z}_N$-axion, we introduce a small explicit $\mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetry-breaking coupling between the Standard Model Higgs boson and a reheaton. This small explicit breaking allows us to populate a large portion of the light axion $m_a$-$f_a$ plane, removes the $1/N$ tuning in the $\mathbb{Z}_N$-axion, and explains why only our sector was reheated. Due to finite temperature effects, axions of this sort undergo either ``rigged" misalignment, where the axion misalignment angle is effectively $π$ regardless of its initial value; or ``shuffled" misalignment, where the initial angle is effectively randomized. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_02049 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Stacking the Deck: Gambling on a Light QCD Axion Banerjee, Abhishek Buen-Abad, Manuel A. Hook, Anson High Energy Physics - Phenomenology We consider axions lighter than what their QCD couplings might otherwise suggest. Starting with a $\mathbb{Z}_N$-axion, we introduce a small explicit $\mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetry-breaking coupling between the Standard Model Higgs boson and a reheaton. This small explicit breaking allows us to populate a large portion of the light axion $m_a$-$f_a$ plane, removes the $1/N$ tuning in the $\mathbb{Z}_N$-axion, and explains why only our sector was reheated. Due to finite temperature effects, axions of this sort undergo either ``rigged" misalignment, where the axion misalignment angle is effectively $π$ regardless of its initial value; or ``shuffled" misalignment, where the initial angle is effectively randomized. |
| title | Stacking the Deck: Gambling on a Light QCD Axion |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.02049 |