Abstract
Axions and dark photons are common in many extensions of the Standard Model. The dark axion portal — an axion coupling to the dark photon and photon — can significantly modify their phenomenology. We study the cosmological constraints on the dark axion portal from Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) bounds on the energy density of dark radiation, ∆Neff. By computing the axion-photon-dark photon collision terms and solving the Boltzmann equations including their effects, we find that light axions are generally more constrained by ∆Neff than from supernova cooling or collider experiments. However, with dark photons at the MeV scale, a window of parameter space is opened up above the supernova limits and below the experimental exclusion, allowing for axion decay constants as low as fa ~ 104 GeV. This region also modifies indirectly the neutrino energy density, thus relaxing the cosmological upper bound on the sum of neutrino masses. Future CMB measurements could detect a signal or close this open window on the dark axion portal.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Miguel Escudero, Tae Hyun Jung, Wan-il Park, and Seokhoon Yun for useful discussions. HH, UM, and MS were supported by National Research Foundation of Korea under Grant Number NRF-2021R1A2C1095430. TY was supported by a Branco Weiss Society in Science Fellowship and United Kingdom STFC grant ST/T000759/1.
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Hong, H., Min, U., Son, M. et al. A cosmic window on the dark axion portal. J. High Energ. Phys. 2024, 155 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2024)155
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2024)155