https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202227000024
The axion potential in quark matter
1 School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, 222 South Tianshui Road, Lanzhou 730000, China
2 Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Radzikowskiego 152, 31-342 Cracow, Poland
3 CONICET, Godoy Cruz 2290, C1425FQB Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina and Departamento de Física, Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, Av. Libertador 8250, C1429 BNP, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Published online: 17 November 2022
We study the QCD axion potential in hot and dense quark matter, within an NJL-like model that includes the coupling of the axion to quarks. Firstly we compute the effect of the chiral QCD crossover on the axion mass and self-coupling. Then, we compute the axion potential and study the domain walls. We find that the energy barrier between two adjacent vacuum states decreases in the chirally restored phase: this results in a lower surface tension of the walls. Finally we comment on the possibility of abundant production of walls in hot and dense quark matter.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2022
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
