Production of Thermal Axions across the ElectroWeak Phase Transition

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the production of thermal axions during the electroweak phase transition, predicting their detectable cosmic background and potential for future observational probes.

Contribution

It provides a continuous treatment of thermal axion production across the electroweak scale and offers model-independent predictions for their abundance.

Findings

Axion background could be detectable by future CMB-S4 surveys.

Future axion helioscopes can probe relevant parameter regions.

Predictions made for specific QCD axion scenarios.

Abstract

Light axions can potentially leave a cosmic background, just like neutrinos. We complete the study of thermal axion production across the electroweak scale by providing a smooth and continuous treatment through the two phases. Focusing on both flavor conserving and violating couplings to third generation quarks, we compute the amount of axions produced via scatterings and decays of thermal bath particles. We perform a model independent analysis in terms of axion effective couplings, and we also make predictions for specific microscopic QCD axion scenarios. This observable effect, parameterized as it is conventional by an effective number of additional neutrinos, is above the $1\sigma$ sensitivity of future CMB-S4 surveys. Moreover, if one assumes no large hierarchies among dimensionless axion couplings to standard model particles, future axion helioscopes will provide a complementary probe for the parameter region we study.