https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202227401007
Thermal Axions: What’s next?
1 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
2 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
* e-mail: francesco.deramo@pd.infn.it
Published online: 22 December 2022
Scattering and decay processes of thermal bath particles in the early universe can dump relativistic axions in the primordial plasma. If produced with a significant abundance, their presence can leave observable signatures in cosmological observables probing both the early and the late universe. We focus on the QCD axion and present recent and significant improvements for the calculation of the axion production rate across the different energy scales during the expansion of the universe. We apply these rates to predict the abundance of produced axions and to derive the latest cosmological bounds on the axion mass and couplings.
© 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, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
