QCD Axions and CMB Anisotropy

TL;DR

This paper explores the hypothesis that primordial QCD-axion fluctuations could primarily generate CMB anisotropies, constraining axion models and early universe scenarios through observational data.

Contribution

It proposes a model where axion fluctuations dominate CMB anisotropy, linking axion physics with early universe conditions and observational constraints.

Findings

Allowed parameter space for axion models identified

Constraints from isocurvature and non-Gaussianity incorporated

Scenario involving low-scale thermal inflation shown to be viable

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a possibility that the temperature anisotropy of cosmic microwave background (CMB) is dominantly generated by the primordial fluctuations of QCD-axion like particles under a circumstance that inflaton's perturbation is too small to explain the CMB anisotropy. Since the axion potential is generated by acquiring its energy from radiation, the primordial fluctuations of the axion field generated in the inflation era are correlated with the CMB anisotropies. Consequently, the observations stringently constrain a model of the axion and the early universe scenario. The following conditions must be satisfied: (i) sufficient amplitudes of the CMB anisotropy (ii) consistency with the axion isocurvature constraint and (iii) the non-Gaussianity constraint. To satisfy these conditions, a large energy fraction $\Omega_A^{}$ of the axion is necessary at the QCD scale when the axion-potential is generated, but simultaneously, it must become tiny at the present era due to the isocurvature constraint. Thus an additional scenario of the early universe, such as low scale thermal inflation, is inevitable to dilute the axions after the QCD scale. We investigate such a model and obtain its allowed parameter region.