Gravitino Production Suppressed by Dynamics of Sgoldstino

In supersymmetric theories, the gravitino is abundantly produced in the early Universe from thermal scattering, resulting in a strong upper bound on the reheat temperature after inflation. We point out that the gravitino problem may be absent or very mild due to the early dynamics of a supersymmetry breaking field, i.e. a sgoldstino. In models of low scale mediation, the field value of the sgoldstino determines the mediation scale and is in general different in the early Universe from the present one. A large initial field value since the era of the inflationary reheating suppresses the gravitino production significantly. We investigate in detail the cosmological evolution of the sgoldstino and show that the reheat temperature may be much higher than the conventional upper bound, restoring the compatibility with thermal leptogenesis.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figures; v2: discussions added and one figure updated, matches version published in JHE

Gravitino or Axino Dark Matter with Reheat Temperature as high as 101610^{16} GeV

A new scheme for lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) dark matter is introduced and studied in theories of TeV supersymmetry with a QCD axion, $a$, and a high reheat temperature after inflation, $T_R$. A large overproduction of axinos ($\tilde{a}$) and gravitinos ($\tilde{G}$) from scattering at $T_R$, and from freeze-in at the TeV scale, is diluted by the late decay of a saxion condensate that arises from inflation. The two lightest superpartners are $\tilde{a}$, with mass of order the TeV scale, and $\tilde{G}$ with mass $m_{3/2}$ anywhere between the keV and TeV scales, depending on the mediation scale of supersymmetry breaking. Dark matter contains both warm and cold components: for $\tilde{G}$ LSP the warm component arises from $\tilde{a} \rightarrow \tilde{G}a$, while for $\tilde{a}$ LSP the warm component arises from $\tilde{G} \rightarrow \tilde{a}a$. The free-streaming scale for the warm component is predicted to be of order 1 Mpc (and independent of $m_{3/2}$ in the case of $\tilde{G}$ LSP). $T_R$ can be as high as $10^{16}$ GeV, for any value of $m_{3/2}$, solving the gravitino problem. The PQ symmetry breaking scale $V_{PQ}$ depends on $T_R$ and $m_{3/2}$ and can be anywhere in the range $(10^{10} - 10^{16})$ GeV. Detailed predictions are made for the lifetime of the neutralino LOSP decaying to $\tilde{a}+ h/Z$ and $\tilde{G}+h/Z/\gamma$, which is in the range of $(10^{-1}-10^6)$m over much of parameter space. For an axion misalignment angle of order unity, the axion contribution to dark matter is sub-dominant, except when $V_{PQ}$ approaches $10^{16}$ GeV.Comment: 43 pages, 16 figure

Saxion Cosmology for Thermalized Gravitino Dark Matter

In all supersymmetric theories, gravitinos, with mass suppressed by the Planck scale, are an obvious candidate for dark matter; but if gravitinos ever reached thermal equilibrium, such dark matter is apparently either too abundant or too hot, and is excluded. However, in theories with an axion, a saxion condensate is generated during an early era of cosmological history and its late decay dilutes dark matter. We show that such dilution allows previously thermalized gravitinos to account for the observed dark matter over very wide ranges of gravitino mass, keV < $m_{3/2}$ < TeV, axion decay constant, $10^9$ GeV < $f_a$ < $10^{16}$ GeV, and saxion mass, 10 MeV < $m_s$ < 100 TeV. Constraints on this parameter space are studied from BBN, supersymmetry breaking, gravitino and axino production from freeze-in and saxion decay, and from axion production from both misalignment and parametric resonance mechanisms. Large allowed regions of $(m_{3/2}, f_a, m_s)$ remain, but differ for DFSZ and KSVZ theories. Superpartner production at colliders may lead to events with displaced vertices and kinks, and may contain saxions decaying to $(WW,ZZ,hh), gg, \gamma \gamma$ or a pair of Standard Model fermions. Freeze-in may lead to a sub-dominant warm component of gravitino dark matter, and saxion decay to axions may lead to dark radiation.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figure

Baryogenesis from Decaying Magnetic Helicity in Axiogenesis

Generating axion dark matter through the kinetic misalignment mechanism implies the generation of large asymmetries for Standard Model fermions in the early universe. Even if these asymmetries are washed out at later times, they can trigger a chiral plasma instability in the early universe. Similarly, a direct coupling of the axion with the hypercharge gauge field can trigger a tachyonic instability. These instabilities produce helical magnetic fields, which are preserved until the electroweak phase transition. At the electroweak phase transition, these become a source of baryon asymmetry, which can be much more efficient than the original axiogenesis proposal. We discuss constraints on axion dark matter production from the overproduction of the baryon asymmetry as well as a minimal, albeit fine-tuned setup, where both the correct dark matter abundance and baryon asymmetry can be achieved. For a given axion decay constant, this leads to a sharp prediction for the mass of the radial direction of the Peccei Quinn field, which is a soft mass scale in supersymmetric theories.Comment: 29 pages + references, 5 figure

Axion Kinetic Misalignment Mechanism

In the conventional misalignment mechanism, the axion field has a constant initial field value in the early universe and later begins to oscillate. We present an alternative scenario where the axion field has a nonzero initial velocity, allowing an axion decay constant much below the conventional prediction from axion dark matter. This axion velocity can be generated from explicit breaking of the axion shift symmetry in the early universe, which may occur as this symmetry is approximate.Comment: 7+4 pages, 2+2 figures; v2: Supplemental Material and references added, matches journal versio

Predictions for Axion Couplings from ALP Cogenesis

Adding an axion-like particle (ALP) to the Standard Model, with a field velocity in the early universe, simultaneously explains the observed baryon and dark matter densities. This requires one or more couplings between the ALP and photons, nucleons, and/or electrons that are predicted as functions of the ALP mass. These predictions arise because the ratio of dark matter to baryon densities is independent of the ALP field velocity, allowing a correlation between the ALP mass, $m_a$, and decay constant, $f_a$. The predicted couplings are orders of magnitude larger than those for the QCD axion and for dark matter from the conventional ALP misalignment mechanism. As a result, this scheme, ALP cogenesis, is within reach of future experimental ALP searches from the lab and stellar objects, and for dark matter.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure