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Experimental targets for photon couplings of the QCD axion

Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2018, Article number: 6 (2018) Cite this article

A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv.

Abstract

The QCD axion’s coupling to photons is often assumed to lie in a narrow band as a function of the axion mass. We demonstrate that several simple mechanisms, in addition to the photophilic clockwork axion already in the literature, can significantly extend the allowed range of couplings. Some mechanisms we present generalize the KNP alignment scenario, widely studied as a model of inflation, to the phenomenology of a QCD axion. In particular we present KSVZ-like realizations of two-axion KNP alignment and of the clockwork mechanism. Such a “confinement tower” realization of clockwork may prove useful in a variety of model-building contexts. We also show that kinetic mixing of the QCD axion with a lighter axion-like particle can dramatically alter the QCD axion’s coupling to photons, differing from the other models we present by allowing non-quantized couplings. The simple models that we present fully cover the range of axion-photon couplings that could be probed by experiments. They motivate growing axion detection efforts over a wide space of masses and couplings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Harvard University, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge, U.S.A.

    Prateek Agrawal & Matthew Reece

  2. Department of Physics, Brown University, 184 Hope Street, Providence, U.S.A.

    JiJi Fan

  3. Department of Physics, University of Chicago, 5720 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, U.S.A.

    Lian-Tao Wang

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  1. Prateek Agrawal
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  4. Lian-Tao Wang
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Correspondence to Prateek Agrawal.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1709.06085

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Agrawal, P., Fan, J., Reece, M. et al. Experimental targets for photon couplings of the QCD axion. J. High Energ. Phys. 2018, 6 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2018)006

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Keywords

  • Beyond Standard Model
  • Nonperturbative Effects