The Peccei-Quinn Symmetry from a Gauged Discrete R Symmetry

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a gauged discrete R symmetry can naturally protect the Peccei-Quinn symmetry, making the axion solution to the strong CP problem more theoretically robust and compatible with experimental constraints.

Contribution

It shows that an anomaly-free gauged discrete R symmetry can induce an accidental Peccei-Quinn symmetry, extending the supersymmetric standard model with new matter multiplets and broadening viable scenarios.

Findings

Large landscape of viable models with anomaly-free Z_N^R symmetry

Flexible N values greater than 2, accommodating various phenomenological constraints

Implications for mu problem, collider searches, and axion dark matter

Abstract

The axion solution to the strong CP problem calls for an explanation as to why the Lagrangian should be invariant under the global Peccei-Quinn symmetry, U(1)_PQ, to such a high degree of accuracy. In this paper, we point out that the U(1)_PQ can indeed survive as an accidental symmetry in the low-energy effective theory, if the standard model gauge group is supplemented by a gauged and discrete R symmetry, Z_N^R, forbidding all dangerous operators that explicitly break the Peccei-Quinn symmetry. In contrast to similar approaches, the requirement that the Z_N^R symmetry be anomaly-free forces us, in general, to extend the supersymmetric standard model by new matter multiplets. Surprisingly, we find a large landscape of viable scenarios that all individually fulfill the current experimental constraints on the QCD vacuum angle as well as on the axion decay constant. In particular, choosing the number of additional multiplets appropriately, the order N of the Z_N^R symmetry can take any integer value larger than 2. This has interesting consequences with respect to possible solutions of the mu problem, collider searches for vector-like quarks and axion dark matter.