Search

We consider the possibility to detect cosmic light dark matter (DM), i.e., axions and dark photons, of mass $\sim 10^{-6}$ eV and $\sim 10^{-4}$ eV, by magnetic excitation in a magnet with strong hyperfine interaction. In particular, we consider a canted anti-ferromagnet, MnCO$_3$, as a concrete candidate material. With spin transfer between nuclear and electron spins allowed by the hyperfine interaction, nuclear spins become naturally highly polarized due to an effective (electron-spin-induced) magnetic field, and have long-range interactions with each other. The collective precession of nuclear spins, i.e., a nuclear magnon, can be generated by the DM field through the nucleon-DM interaction, while they are also sensitive to the electron-DM interaction through the electron-nuclear spin mixing. Compared to conventional nuclear-spin precession experiments, this system as a DM sensor is sensitive to higher frequency needing only a small static magnetic field applied. The system also has collective precession of electron spins, mixed with nuclear spins, as the additional channels that can be used for DM probes. We estimate the sensitivity under appropriate readout setups such as an inductive pick-up loop associated with an LC resonant circuit, or a photon cavity with a photon counting device. We show that this method covers an unexplored parameter region of light bosonic DM., 55 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables

We point out that a soliton such as an oscillon or boson star inevitably decays into gravitons through gravitational interactions. These decay processes exist even if there are no apparent self-interactions of the constituent field, scalar or vector, since they are induced by gravitational interactions. Hence, our results provide a strict upper limit on the lifetime of oscillons and boson stars including the dilute axion star. We also calculate the spectrum of the graviton background from decay of solitons., 32 pages, 2 figures

We construct a viable model of the vector coherent oscillation dark matter. The vector boson is coupled to the inflaton through the kinetic function so that the effective Hubble mass term is cancelled out. In order to avoid strong constraints from isocurvature perturbation and statistically anisotropic curvature perturbation, the inflaton is arranged so that it does not contribute to the observed large scale curvature perturbation and we introduce a curvaton. We found viable vector coherent oscillation dark matter scenario for the wide vector mass range from $10^{-21}\,{\rm eV}$ to $1\,{\rm eV}$., 28 pages, 3 figures

We study graviton-photon conversion in magnetosphere of a pulsar and explore the possibility of detecting high frequency gravitational waves with pulsar observations. It is shown that conversion of one polarization mode of photons can be enhanced significantly due to strong magnetic fields around a pulsar. We also constrain stochastic gravitational waves in frequency range of $10^{8}-10^{9}\,$Hz and $10^{13}-10^{27}\,$Hz by using data of observations of the Crab pulsar and the Geminga pulsar. Our method widely fills the gap among existing high frequency gravitational wave experiments and boosts the frequency frontier in gravitational wave observations., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures

We propose new ideas to directly search for light dark matter, such as the axion or the dark photon, by using magnetometry with nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamonds. If the dark matter couples to the electron spin, it affects the evolution of the Bloch vectors consisting of the spin triplet states, which may be detected through several magnetometry techniques. We give several concrete examples with the use of dc and ac magnetometry and estimate the sensitivity on dark matter couplings., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

We point out that there is a stable configuration of metal plates where the Casimir force is vanishing in axion electrodynamics. We consider a concrete setup involving Weyl semimetals, which hosts an axion-like effect on the electromagnetism, towards the measurement of the axionic effect on the Casimir force. Our setup realizes zero Casimir force between metals and may be useful for the search for new force mediated by light particles at the micrometer scale., Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures; to appear in PRD

The recent observations by pulsar timing array (PTA) experiments suggest the existence of stochastic gravitational wave background in the nano-Hz range. It can be a hint for the new physics and cosmic string is one of the promising candidate. In this paper, we study the implication of the PTA result for cosmic strings and dark photon dark matter produced by the decay of cosmic string loops. It can simultaneously explain the PTA result and present dark matter abundance for the dark photon mass m~10^{-6}--10^{-4}eV. Implications for the gravitational wave detection with multi-frequency bands are also discussed., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures

Dark photon dark matter may be produced by the cosmic strings in association with the dark U(1) gauge symmetry breaking. We perform three-dimensional lattice simulations of the Abelian-Higgs model and follow the evolution of cosmic strings. In particular, we simulate the case of (very) light vector boson and find that such vector bosons are efficiently produced by the collapse of small loops while the production is inefficient in the case of heavy vector boson. We calculate the spectrum of the gravitational wave background produced by the cosmic string loops for the light vector boson case and find characteristic features in the spectrum, which can serve as a probe of the dark photon dark matter scenario. In particular, we find that the current ground-based detectors may be sensitive to such gravitational wave signals and also on-going/future pulsar timing observations give stringent constraint on the dark photon dark matter scenario., 29 pages, 9 figures

We provide a minimal alternative gauged U(1)B−L model in which three right-handed neutrinos with charges of (5,−4,−4) and only one B−L Higgs field with charge 1 are introduced. Consistent active neutrino masses and mixings can be obtained if the Z2 symmetry on two of the right-handed neutrinos is introduced. It predicts two heavy degenerate right-handed neutrinos, which may realize resonant leptogenesis scenario, and one relatively light sterile neutrino, which is a good dark matter candidate.

We study particle production and unitarity violation caused by a curved target space right after inflation. We use the inflaton field value instead of cosmic time as the time variable, and derive a semiclassical formula for the spectrum of produced particles. We then derive a simple condition for unitarity violation during preheating, which we confirm by our semiclassical method and numerical solution. This condition depends not only on the target space curvature but also on the height of the inflaton potential at the end of inflation. This condition tells us, for instance, that unitarity is violated in running kinetic inflation and Higgs inflation, while unitarity is conserved in $\alpha$-attractor inflation and Higgs-Palatini inflation.

We provide a minimal alternative gauged U(1)$_{\rm B-L}$ model in which three right-handed neutrinos with charges of (5,-4,-4) and only one B-L Higgs field with charge 1 are introduced. Consistent active neutrino masses and mixings can be obtained if the $Z_2$ symmetry on two of the right-handed neutrinos is introduced. It predicts two heavy degenerate right-handed neutrinos, which may realize resonant leptogenesis scenario, and one relatively light sterile neutrino, which is a good dark matter candidate., 12 pages, 1 figure; version to appear in PLB

In our previous study, we found that inhibition of protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 3 (PTPN3), which is expressed in lymphocytes, enhances lymphocyte activation, suggesting PTPN3 may act as an immune checkpoint molecule. However, PTPN3 is also expressed in various cancers, and the biological significance of PTPN3 in cancer cells is still not well understood, especially for lung neuroendocrine tumor (NET).Therefore, we analyzed the biological significance of PTPN3 in small cell lung cancer and examined the potential for PTPN3 inhibitory treatment as a cancer treatment approach in lung NET including small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and large cell neuroendocrine cancer (LCNEC). Experiments in a mouse xenograft model using allo lymphocytes showed that PTPN3 inhibition in SCLC cells enhanced the anti-tumor effect of PTPN3-suppressed activated lymphocytes. In addition, PTPN3 was associated with increased vascularization, decreased CD8/FOXP3 ratio and cellular immunosuppression in SCLC clinical specimens. Experiments in a mouse xenograft model using autocrine lymphocytes also showed that PTPN3 inhibition in LCNEC cells augmented the anti-tumor effect of PTPN3-suppressed activated lymphocytes. In vitro experiments showed that PTPN3 is involved in the induction of malignant traits such as proliferation, invasion and migration. Signaling from PTPN3 is mediated by MAPK and PI3K signals via tyrosine kinase phosphorylation through CACNA1G calcium channel. Our results show that PTPN3 suppression is associated with lymphocyte activation and cancer suppression in lung NET. These results suggest that PTPN3 suppression could be a new method of cancer treatment and a major step in the development of new cancer immunotherapies.

We point out that there is a high-frequency tail of the stochastic inflationary gravitational wave background that scales as $f^{-1/2}$ with frequency $f$. This contribution comes from the graviton vacuum fluctuation amplified by the inflaton coherent oscillation during the reheating stage. It contains information on inflaton properties such as the inflaton mass as well as the thermal history of the early Universe.

We consider the simplest possibility for a model of particle dark matter in which dark matter has only gravitational interaction with the standard model sector. Even in such a case, it is known that the gravitational particle production in an expanding universe may lead to a correct relic abundance depending on the inflation scale and the mass of dark matter particle. We provide a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the gravitational particle production of fermionic and vectorial dark matter, and emphasize that particles which are much heavier than the Hubble parameter but lighter than inflaton can also be produced abundantly.

Journal of high energy physics 1907(07), 060 (2019). doi:10.1007/JHEP07(2019)060, We consider the simplest possibility for a model of particle dark matter in which dark matter has only gravitational interaction with the standard model sector. Even in such a case, it is known that the gravitational particle production in an expanding universe may lead to a correct relic abundance depending on the inflation scale and the mass of dark matter particle. We provide a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the gravitational particle production of fermionic and vectorial dark matter, and emphasize that particles which are much heavier than the Hubble parameter but lighter than inflaton can also be produced abundantly., Published by Springer Nature, Cham

We discuss the cosmological gravitino problem in inflation models in which the inflaton potential is constructed from K��hler potential rather than superpotential: a representative model is $\overline{\text{D}3}$-induced geometric inflation. A critical ingredient in this type of models is the coupling of the inflaton and Polonyi (supersymmetry-breaking) field in the K��hler potential, which is needed to build the inflaton potential. We point out the same coupling let the inflaton dominantly decay into a pair of inflatino and gravitino causing the gravitino problem. We propose some possible solutions to this problem., 14 pages; accepted by PLB, title and abstract changed to clarify the topic, conclusion not changed, references added

Minimal chaotic models of D-term inflation predicts too large primordial tensor perturbations. Although it can be made consistent with observations utilizing higher order terms in the K��hler potential, expansion is not controlled in the absence of symmetries. We comprehensively study the conditions of K��hler potential for D-term plateau-type potentials and discuss its symmetry. They include the alpha-attractor model with a massive vector supermultiplet and its generalization leading to pole inflation of arbitrary order. We extend the models so that it can describe Coulomb phase, gauge anomaly is cancelled, and fields other than inflaton are stabilized during inflation. We also point out a generic issue for large-field D-term inflation that the masses of the non-inflaton fields tend to exceed the Planck scale., 31 pages, 3 figures; version 2, published version, minor revision

We propose a scenario in which extra light fermions in an $E_6$-inspired U(1) extension of the standard model constitute the dark matter, as a simple variation of our model for dark radiation presented in 2010. Interestingly, for the light fermions of mass about 7 keV, they radiatively decay into active neutrinos and photons with a lifetime in the range of $10^{27}-10^{28}$ seconds, which naturally explains the recently discovered 3.5 keV X-ray line signal., Comment: 7 pages

We pursue a possibility that a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson is lurking around or below the intermediate scale. To this end we consider an anomaly-free global flavor symmetry, and construct models where the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson is coupled preferentially to leptons. The experimental and astrophysical bounds derived from couplings to photons and nucleons are significantly relaxed. If sufficiently light, the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson contributes to dark matter, and interestingly, it generally decays into photons through couplings arising from threshold corrections. We show that the recent hint for the X-ray line at about $3.5$ keV can be explained by the decay of such pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of mass about $7$ keV with the decay constant of order $10^{10}$ GeV, if the electron is charged under the flavor symmetry., 15 pages

We construct a gauge-mediated SUSY breaking model with vector-like matters combined with the Peccei-Quinn mechanism to solve the strong CP problem. The Peccei-Quinn symmetry plays an essential role for generating sizable masses for the vector-like matters and the $\mu$-term without introducing dangerous CP angle. The model naturally explains both the 125GeV Higgs mass and the muon anomalous magnetic moment. The stabilization of the Peccei-Quinn scalar and the cosmology of the saxion and axino are also discussed., Comment: 33 pages, 5 figures; version to be published (JHEP)

One of the solutions to the cosmological Polonyi problem is to introduce a large coupling between the Polonyi field and the inflaton so that the Polonyi field adiabatically tracks the temporal minimum of the potential. We study general conditions for the adiabatic suppression mechanism to work, and find that a non-negligible amount of the Polonyi field is induced in the form of coherent oscillations at the end of inflation. In the case of low reheating temperature, this contribution is so small that it does not cause cosmological problems. On the other hand, this contribution may be significant for a relatively high reheating temperature and we still need some amount of tuning in order to avoid the Polonyi problem. We also point out that Polonyi particles produced from thermal plasma pose a severe constraint on the reheating temperature. Furthermore, we extend the original framework to include enhanced couplings of the Polonyi field with the visible particles as well as with itself, and derive upper bounds on the reheating temperature after inflation. We also investigate the adiabatic solution to the cosmological moduli problem in gauge and anomaly mediation., Comment: 47 pages, 13 figures

It is shown that space-based gravitational wave detectors such as DECIGO and/or Big Bang Observer (BBO) will provide us with invaluable information on the cosmic thermal history after inflation and they will be able to determine the reheat temperature $T_R$ provided that it lies in the range preferred by the cosmological gravitino problem, $T_R\sim 10^{5-9}$ GeV. Therefore it is strongly desired that they will be put into practice as soon as possible., Comment: 5 pages

It has been known that in anomaly-mediated SUSY breaking model Affleck-Dine baryogenesis does not work due to trapping of Affleck-Dine field into charge-breaking minima. We show that when finite-temperature effect is properly taken into account and if reheating temperature is relatively high, the problem of falling into charge breaking global minima can be avoided and hence Affleck-Dine baryogenesis works. Moreover, for the LH_u flat direction we obtain a constraint on the mass of neutrino., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures; Minor corrections, added a reference