New cosmological bounds on axions in the XENON1T window

Millea, M.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2007.05659

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Inside the gray domain, thermalization processes are too efficient to allow any constraint from CMB SDs. Here complementary constraints from measurements of N eff apply (e.g., Millea et al 2015;Millea 2020), but are not presented.…”

Section: Axion-like-particlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This case already puts significant pressure on keV-mass axion explanations of the XENON1T anomaly (Aprile et al 2020), even if a very small fraction of the DM. Arguments against this possibility, but based on measurements of N eff , have recently been presented in Millea (2020). For short lifetimes, the CAST limit would furthermore weaken, as the expected number density of ALPs originating from the Sun would be depleted 13 by the time they reach the Earth, hence decreasing the chance of detection.…”

Section: Axion-like-particlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Spectral distortion constraints on photon injection from low-mass decaying particles

Bolliet,

Chluba,

Battye

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Spectral distortions (SDs) of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provide a powerful tool for studying particle physics.Here we compute the distortion signals from decaying particles that convert directly into photons at different epochs during cosmic history, focusing on injection energies E inj 20 keV. We deliver a comprehensive library of SD solutions that can be used to study a wide range of particle physics scenarios. We use CosmoTherm to compute the SD signals, including effects on the ionization history and opacities of the Universe. We also consider the effect of blackbody-induced stimulated decay, which can modify the injection history significantly. Then, we use data from COBE/FIRAS and EDGES to constrain the properties of the decaying particles. We explore scenarios where these provide a dark matter (DM) candidate or constitute only a small fraction of DM. We complement the SD constraints with CMB anisotropy constraints, highlighting new effects from injections at very-low photon energies (hν 10 −4 eV). Our model-independent constraints exhibit rich structures in the lifetime-energy domain, covering injection energies E inj 10 −10 eV − 10keV and lifetimes τ X 10 5 s − 10 33 s. We discuss the constraints on axions and axion-like particles that convert directly into two photons, revising existing SD constraints in the literature. Our limits are competitive with other constraints for axion masses m a c 2 27 eV and we find that simple estimates based on the overall energetics are generally inaccurate. Future CMB spectrometers could significantly improve the obtained constraints, thus providing an important complementary probe of early-universe particle physics.

show abstract

Section: Axion-like-particlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Axion-like-particlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spectral distortion constraints on photon injection from low-mass decaying particles

Bolliet,

Chluba,

Battye

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This leads to important differences with respect to previous work, which assumed KSVZ scattering rates (see e.g. [23][24][25]).…”

Section: A Interactions With Pionsmentioning

confidence: 71%

“…For this to be the case, the axion mass m a should be larger than about ∼ 0.05 eV and correspondingly the axion decay constant f , that is the scale suppressing the axion couplings to SM fields, should be smaller than about 10 8 GeV. By using CMB data and focusing on pion scattering, strong constraints on the axion mass have already been derived in one class of axion models, the KSVZ scenario [20,21], where the QCD axion coupling to SM fermions is negligible, since it vanishes at tree level (see [18,19] for the original works, and [22][23][24][25] for recent updates using Planck 2013, 2015 and 2018 data, respectively).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, on the astrophysical side, measurements of the cooling rates of certain white dwarfs (see e.g. [32,33]) and red giant stars (see [34][35][36]) appear to hint (at slightly more than 3σ) at a DFSZ axion 1 Recent works [24,25] fixed the axion-pion coupling according to the KSVZ scenario (and did not discuss production via leptons). Therefore, such bounds on the QCD axion mass cannot be applied to DFSZ scenarios (especially when correlating with the Xenon-1T excess).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The DFSZ axion in the CMB

Ferreira,

Notari,

Rompineve

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We perform for the first time a dedicated analysis of cosmological constraints on DFSZ QCD axion models. Such constructions are especially interesting in light of the recent Xenon-1T excess and of hints from stellar cooling. In DFSZ models, for ma 0.1 eV, scatterings of pions and muons can produce a sizable cosmic background of thermal axions, that behave similarly to massive neutrinos. However, the pion coupling depends on the alignment between the vevs of two Higgs doublets, and can be significantly suppressed or enhanced with respect to the KSVZ scenario. Using the latest Planck and BAO data, we find ma ≤ 0.2 eV at 95% C.L., when the axion coupling to pions caπ is maximal. Constraints on ma, instead, can be significantly relaxed when caπ is small. In particular, we point out that in the so-called DFSZ-II model, where the axion coupling to leptons does not vanish simultaneously with caπ, production via muons gives ma ≤ 0.6 eV at 95% C.L., whereas in the DFSZ-I model bounds on ma can be fully lifted. We then combine cosmological data with recent hints of a DFSZ axion coupled to electrons from the Xenon-1T experiment, finding in this case that the axion mass is constrained to be in the window 0.07 eV ma 1.8 (0.3) eV for the DFSZ-I (DFSZ-II) model. A similar analysis with stellar cooling hints gives 3 meV ma 0.2 eV for DFSZ-II, while no constraint arises in the DFSZ-I case. Forthcoming CMB Stage 4 experiments will be able to further test such scenarios; for instance the Xenon-1T window should be fully probed at 2σ for a DFSZ-I axion.

show abstract

Cosmic imprints of XENON1T axions

Arias-Aragón

DʼEramo

Ferreira

et al. 2020

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The recent electron recoil excess observed by XENON1T has a possible interpretation in terms of solar axions coupled to electrons. If such axions are still relativistic at recombination they would also leave a cosmic imprint in the form of an additional radiation component, parameterized by an effective neutrino number ∆N eff . We explore minimal scenarios with a detectable signal in future CMB surveys: axions coupled democratically to all fermions, axion-electron coupling generated radiatively, the DFSZ framework for the QCD axion. The predicted ∆N eff is larger than 0.03-0.04 for all cases, close to the 2σ forecasted sensitivity of CMB-S4 experiments. This opens the possibility of testing with cosmological observations the solar axion interpretation of the XENON1T excess.

show abstract

New cosmological bounds on axions in the XENON1T window

Cited by 5 publications

References 48 publications

Spectral distortion constraints on photon injection from low-mass decaying particles

Spectral distortion constraints on photon injection from low-mass decaying particles

The DFSZ axion in the CMB

Cosmic imprints of XENON1T axions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About