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Title: A viable QCD axion in the MeV mass range

Journal Article · · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]
  1. New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States). Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics. Dept. of Physics; Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Physics; Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States). Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics. Dept. of Physics

The QCD axion is one of the most compelling solutions of the strong CP problem. There are major current efforts into searching for an ultralight, invisible axion, which is believed to be the only phenomenologically viable realization of the QCD axion. Visible axions with decay constants at or below the electroweak scale are believed to have been long excluded by laboratory searches. Considering the significance of the axion solution to the strong CP problem, we revisit experimental constraints on QCD axions in the O(10 MeV) mass window. In particular, we find a variant axion model that remains compatible with existing constraints. This model predicts new states at the GeV scale coupled hadronically, and a variety of low-energy axion signatures, such as rare meson decays, nuclear de-excitations via axion emission, and production in e+e- annihilation and fixed target experiments. This reopens the possibility of solving the strong CP problem at the GeV scale.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; LANL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; PHY-0947827; PHY-1316753; PHY- 0969510; PHYS-1066293
OSTI ID:
1485404
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-29295
Journal Information:
Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Vol. 2018, Issue 7; ISSN 1029-8479
Publisher:
Springer BerlinCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 61 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

Axion couplings to electroweak gauge bosons journal March 2019
Flavour Violating Axions text January 2019
Flavour Violating Axions journal January 2020
A light complex scalar for the electron and muon anomalous magnetic moments text January 2018
Coupling QCD-scale axion-like particles to gluons text January 2018
Flavour Violating Axions text January 2019

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