Model implementations of axion dark matter from kinetic misalignment

TL;DR

This paper explores the kinetic misalignment mechanism for axion dark matter, analyzing UV completions, damping processes, and experimental prospects, revealing new regimes for axion detection and implications for inflation.

Contribution

It introduces detailed models of the kinetic misalignment mechanism, including damping effects and experimental sensitivities, expanding the understanding of axion dark matter production.

Findings

KMM allows axion dark matter over a wide mass range.

Damping mechanisms are crucial for successful KMM implementation.

Experiments like IAXO and MADMAX can probe KMM-produced axions.

Abstract

The axion kinetic misalignment mechanism (KMM) opens the possibility of explaining dark matter for almost any axion mass and decay constant that are not accessible by the standard misalignment mechanism, in particular at low values of the axion decay constant (i.e. large coupling). This is a new opportunity for most axion experiments which could be sensitive to dark matter and probe new regimes of axion cosmology. We scrutinise UV completions that lead to the KMM mechanism. These mainly rely on the early dynamics of the axion partner, the radial mode of the complex scalar field, from which the axion inherits kinetic energy. The damping of the radial-mode energy density is then a necessary ingredient. We study in detail thermal damping from interactions in the plasma. A minimal and rather natural implementation consists of a KSVZ-type model with a nearly-quadratic potential for the radial mode extended by U(1)-breaking higher-dimensional operators. Furthermore, we study Higgs portal interactions as an alternative damping mechanism and improve upon previously proposed implementations based on quartic potentials. These implementations can lead to the QCD axion being dark matter and in the reach of IAXO, while MADMAX, IAXO and ALPS II can be sensitive to a generic Axion-Like-Particle (ALP) as dark matter. Such models typically feature a kination era. We also show that ALP dark matter from KMM points to a particular realization of inflation.