Oct 2017 - Sep 2018

Axions in a highly protected gauge symmetry model

by Quentin Bonnefoy (Ecole Polytechnique)

Europe/London
OC218 (IPPP)

OC218

IPPP

Description

I will discuss a model of an accidental global symmetry, and its axionic Goldstone mode, obtained from an abelian quiver with scalar bifundamental fields. This model corresponds to the latticization of a 5d abelian theory on a linear dilaton background and can accommodate a protected QCD axion (or DM axion-like particles). Indeed, explicit breaking contributions to the axion mass are already much suppressed for few quiver sites. I will describe the couplings of the axion and their characteristic scales, commenting specifically on the implications of the presence of additional heavy fermions in theories of a protected QCD axion.