The hunt for axions

Many theoretically well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics predict the existence of the axion and further ultralight axion-like particles. They may constitute the mysterious dark matter in the universe and solve some puzzles in stellar and high-energy astrophysics. There are new, relatively small experiments around the globe, which started to hunt for these elusive particles and complement the accelerator based search for physics beyond the Standard Model.Comment: 11 pages, invited talk at XVI International Workshop on Neutrino Telescopes, 2-6 March 2015, Palazzo Franchetti, Istituto Veneto, Venice, Ital

Production of Black Holes in TeV-Scale Gravity

Copious production of microscopic black holes is one of the least model-dependent predictions of TeV-scale gravity scenarios. We review the arguments behind this assertion and discuss opportunities to track the striking associated signatures in the near future. These include searches at neutrino telescopes, such as AMANDA and RICE, at cosmic ray air shower facilities, such as the Pierre Auger Observatory, and at colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures, fortschritte.sty (included); talk presented at the 35th International Symposium Ahrenshoop on the Theory of Elementary Particles, Aug. 26-30, 2002, Berlin-Schmoeckwitz, German

Multi-W(Z) Production in High-Energy Collisions?

There exists the possibility that the cross-section for the nonperturbative production of many, ${\cal O}(\alpha_W^{-1} \simeq 30 )$, weak gauge bosons may be as large as ${\cal O}(100\ {\rm pb}\ -\ 10\ \mu$b$)$ above a parton-parton center-of-mass threshold in the range $2.4\ -\ 30$ TeV. We review the theoretical considerations which lead to this suggestion and outline its phenomenological implications, both for present cosmic ray as well as for future collider experiments. (Lecture presented at the 4th Hellenic School on Elementary Particle Physics, September 2-20, 1992, Corfu, Greece) (Figures not included, available by ordinary mail)Comment: 15 pages, CERN-TH.6862/9

QCDINS 2.0 - A Monte Carlo generator for instanton-induced processes in deep-inelastic scattering

We describe a Monte Carlo event generator for the simulation of QCD-instanton induced processes in deep-inelastic scattering (HERA). The QCDINS package is designed as an ``add-on'' hard process generator interfaced to the general hadronic event simulation package HERWIG. It incorporates the theoretically predicted production rate for instanton-induced events as well as the essential characteristics that have been derived theoretically for the partonic final state of instanton-induced processes: notably, the flavour democratic and isotropic production of the partonic final state, energy weight factors different for gluons and quarks, and a high average multiplicity O(10) of produced partons with a Poisson distribution of the gluon multiplicity. While the subsequent perturbative evolution of the generated partons is always handled by the HERWIG package, the final hadronization step may optionally be performed also by means of the general hadronic event simulation package JETSET.Comment: 51 pages, 3 figure

Zooming-in on Instantons at HERA

In view of the intriguing, preliminary search results for instanton-induced events at HERA from the H1 collaboration, some important remaining theoretical issues are discussed. Notably, the question is addressed, to which extent the H1 analysis may be directly compared to our original predictions from instanton-perturbation theory, since certain fiducial cuts are lacking in the H1 data. Various theoretical uncertainties are evaluated and their impact on the observed excess is discussed. An improved understanding of the experimental findings along with an encouraging over-all agreement with our original predictions seems to emerge.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Axion dark matter in the post-inflationary Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking scenario

We consider extensions of the Standard Model in which a spontaneously broken global chiral Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry arises as an accidental symmetry of an exact $Z_N$ symmetry. For $N = 9$ or $10$, this symmetry can protect the accion - the Nambu-Goldstone boson arising from the spontaneous breaking of the accidental PQ symmetry - against semi-classical gravity effects, thus suppressing gravitational corrections to the effective potential, while it can at the same time provide for the small explicit symmetry breaking term needed to make models with domain wall number $N_{\rm DW}>1$, such as the popular Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky (DFSZ) model ($N_{\rm DW}=6$), cosmologically viable even in the case where spontaneous PQ symmetry breaking occurred after inflation. We find that $N=10$ DFSZ accions with mass $m_A \approx 3.5$-$4.2\,\mathrm{meV}$ can account for cold dark matter and simultaneously explain the hints for anomalous cooling of white dwarfs. The proposed helioscope International Axion Observatory - being sensitive to solar DFSZ accions with mass above a few meV - will decisively test this scenario.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures; revised version of the manuscript, accepted for publication in PR