AXIONRUSH · Rethinking Ultraviolet Scenarios for Hunting the AXION

Rethinking Ultraviolet Scenarios for Hunting the AXION

The AXIONRUSH project "Rethinking Ultraviolet Scenarios for Hunting the AXION" deals with a broad program for the investigation of theoretical and phenomenological aspects of axion physics. The axion is a hypothetical particle that has been sought for decades and whose discovery would shed light on several unanswered question of the Standard Model of particle physics, such as the origin of the dark matter of the universe and provide a solution to the so-called strong CP problem. The axion experimental program has been developing extremely fast in the recent years, with several new experimental searches and detection concepts promising for the exploration of regions of the axion parameter space that were thought to be unreachable until a decade ago. In particular, some of those foreseen experimental projects (ALPS II, IAXO and MADMAX) will be located at the host institution of the present Action (DESY, Hamburg). The main goal of AXIONRUSH is to bridge theoretical aspects of axion physics with experiments and to provide a global comparison of general axion models with experimental sensitivities and astrophysical bounds. The development of these new theoretical tools will enlarge the physics scopes of the axion experimental program at DESY, Hamburg, by further addressing specific research goals related to the experiments ALPS-II, IAXO, MADMAX. A complementary objective of AXIONRUSH is to investigate scenarios where the Peccei Quinn mechanism is embedded into Grand Unified Theories (GUTs). The latter provide a predictive framework for narrowing down the axion mass range, with a potential impact on the scanning strategy of the axion dark matter experiments. More specifically, the research objectives (ROs) of this Marie Skłodowska Curie Action (MSCA) are: RO1. Redefinition of the Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) axion parameter space, by revisiting axion couplings from a UV perspective (including axion couplings to photons, nucleons, electrons, as well as flavour and CP-violating axion couplings); RO2. Impact on the axion experimental program at DESY, by addressing several sub-projects related to local axion experiments (e.g. ALPs II, IAXO, MADMAX); RO3. Axion properties in GUTs. In particular, provide axion mass predictions and develop new approaches to the so-called axion quality problem.

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