Supersymmetry preserving and breaking degenerate vacua, and radiative moduli stabilization

We propose a new type of moduli stabilization scenario where the supersymmetric and supersymmetry-breaking minima are degenerate at the leading level. The inclusion of the loop-corrections originating from the matter fields resolves this degeneracy of vacua. Light axions are predicted in one of our models.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figure

Constraints on small-field axion inflation

We study general class of small-field axion inflations which are the mixture of polynomial and sinusoidal functions suggested by the natural and axion monodromy inflations. The axion decay constants leading to the successful axion inflations are severely constrained in order not to spoil the Big-Bang nucleosynthesis and overproduce the isocurvature perturbation originating from the QCD axion. We in turn find that the cosmologically favorable axion decay constants are typically of order the grand unification scale or the string scale which is consistent with the prediction of closed string axions.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures; v2 published versio

Modular A4A_4 invariance and neutrino mixing

We study the phenomenological implications of the modular symmetry $\Gamma(3) \simeq A_4$ of lepton flavors facing recent experimental data of neutrino oscillations. The mass matrices of neutrinos and charged leptons are essentially given by fixing the expectation value of modulus $\tau$, which is the only source of modular invariance breaking. We introduce no flavons in contrast with the conventional flavor models with $A_4$ symmetry. We classify our neutrino models along with the type I seesaw model, the Weinberg operator model and the Dirac neutrino model. In the normal hierarchy of neutrino masses, the seesaw model is available by taking account of recent experimental data of neutrino oscillations and the cosmological bound of sum of neutrino masses. The predicted $\sin^2\theta_{23}$ is restricted to be larger than $0.54$ and \delta_{CP}=\pm (50^{\circ}\mbox{--}180^{\circ}). Since the correlation of $\sin^2\theta_{23}$ and $\delta_{CP}$ is sharp, the prediction is testable in the future. It is remarkable that the effective mass $m_{ee}$ of the neutrinoless double beta decay is around $22$\,meV while the sum of neutrino masses is predicted to be $145$\,meV. On the other hand, for the inverted hierarchy of neutrino masses, only the Dirac neutrino model is consistent with the experimental data.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, major modification

Entropy production by domain wall decay in the NMSSM

We consider domain walls in the Z(3) symmetric next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model. The spontaneous Z(3) discrete symmetry breaking produces domain walls, and the stable domain walls are problematic. Thus, we assume the Z(3) symmetry is slightly but explicitly broken and the domain walls decay. Such a decay causes a large late-time entropy production. We study its cosmological implications on unwanted relics such as the moduli, gravitino, lightest superparticle, and axion

Axion Dark Radiation and its Dilution

Axions in the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) mechanism provide a promising solution to the strong CP problem in the standard model of particle physics. Coherently generated PQ scalar fields could dominate the energy density in the early Universe and decay into relativistic axions, which would conflict with the current dark radiation constraints. We show that a thermal inflation driven by a $U(1)$ gauged Higgs field dilutes such axions. We discuss an available baryogenesis mechanism for the $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge symmetry