Putting the Brakes on Axion Strings: Friction and Its Impact on the QCD Axion Abundance
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866917300448264192 |
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| author | Hook, Anson Mondal, Rajrupa Mukherjee, Shourya |
| author_facet | Hook, Anson Mondal, Rajrupa Mukherjee, Shourya |
| contents | A compelling production mechanism for QCD axion dark matter is from the scaling dynamics of early universe axion strings. We show that in DFSZ-like models containing tree-level interactions between fermions and the axion, friction between the thermal bath and the axion string drastically changes the behavior of the axion string network for lower $f_a$ values. Friction delays the onset of scaling and increases the energy density of axions. Once the effects of friction are included, we argue that in addition to the standard value of $m_a \sim$ meV, $m_a \sim 0.1$ eV also reproduces the dark matter energy density. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_00237 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Putting the Brakes on Axion Strings: Friction and Its Impact on the QCD Axion Abundance Hook, Anson Mondal, Rajrupa Mukherjee, Shourya High Energy Physics - Phenomenology A compelling production mechanism for QCD axion dark matter is from the scaling dynamics of early universe axion strings. We show that in DFSZ-like models containing tree-level interactions between fermions and the axion, friction between the thermal bath and the axion string drastically changes the behavior of the axion string network for lower $f_a$ values. Friction delays the onset of scaling and increases the energy density of axions. Once the effects of friction are included, we argue that in addition to the standard value of $m_a \sim$ meV, $m_a \sim 0.1$ eV also reproduces the dark matter energy density. |
| title | Putting the Brakes on Axion Strings: Friction and Its Impact on the QCD Axion Abundance |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.00237 |