Axion Fragmentation
Nayara Fonseca, Enrico Morgante, Ryosuke Sato, G\'eraldine Servant
TL;DR
This paper studies how quantum fluctuations of an axion-like field grow and influence the field's evolution in the early universe, with implications for the relaxion mechanism.
Contribution
It provides a detailed analysis of axion quantum fluctuation growth, back-reaction effects, and conditions affecting the relaxion mechanism's viability.
Findings
Quantum fluctuations grow during axion evolution.
Back-reaction influences the zero-mode dynamics.
Conditions for decelerating the axion zero-mode are identified.
Abstract
We investigate the production of axion quanta during the early universe evolution of an axion-like field rolling down a wiggly potential. We compute the growth of quantum fluctuations and their back-reaction on the homogeneous zero-mode. We evaluate the transfer of kinetic energy from the zero mode to the quantum fluctuations and the conditions to decelerate the axion zero-mode as a function of the Hubble rate, the slope of the potential, the size of the barriers and the initial field velocity. We discuss how these effects impact the relaxion mechanism.
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