1. Axion Couplings in Heterotic String Theory
- Author
-
Agrawal, Prateek, Nee, Michael, and Reig, Mario
- Subjects
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology ,High Energy Physics - Theory - Abstract
We study the coupling of axions to gauge bosons in heterotic string theory. The axion-gauge boson couplings in the low energy 4d theory are derived by matching mixed anomalies between higher-form global symmetries and the zero-form gauge symmetry in the 10d theory. When the standard model gauge group is embedded in a single simple group in the 10d theory -- as is the case for almost all heterotic models studied in the literature -- the ratio of the axion-photon coupling to the axion mass is bounded above by the QCD line. This bound is relevant for a large number of axion searches which have sensitivity to axion parameter space above this line. The discovery of an axion in these searches will rule out a large class of heterotic models, making such a signal challenging to explain within heterotic string theory., Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure
- Published
- 2024