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The COSMIC WISPers White Paper: The physics case for Weakly Interacting Slim Particles

Ariel Arza, Deniz Aybas, Shyam Balaji, Reuven Balkin, Kai Bartnick, Charles F. A. Baynham, Itay M. Bloch, Claudio Bonati, Dmitry Budker, Clare Burrage, Malte Buschmann, Francesca Calore, Francisco R. Candón, Pierluca Carenza, Serkant Ali Cetin, Francesca Chadha-Day, Sreemanti Chakraborti, Kiwoon Choi, Michele Cicoli, Lei Cong, Joseph P. Conlon, Florin Lucian Constantin, José Correia, Claudia De Dominicis, Arturo de Giorgi, Pedro De la Torre Luque, Javier De Miguel, Francesco D'Eramo, Alejandro Díaz-Morcillo, Patricia Diego-Palazuelos, David Díez-Ibáñez, Luca Di Luzio, Amelia Drew, Babette Döbrich, Christopher Eckner, Aldo Ejlli, Sebastian A. R. Ellis, Angelo Esposito, Elisa Ferreira, Nahuel Ferreiro Iachellini, Damiano F. G. Fiorillo, Matteo Galaverni, Michele Gallinaro, Camilo García-Cely, Silvia Gasparotto, Claudio Gatti, Daniel Gavilan-Martin, Maurizio Giannotti, Benito Gimeno, Marco Gorghetto, Giovanni Grilli di Cortona, Jordan Gué, Gerard Higgins, Dieter Horns, Mathieu Kaltschmidt, Marin Karuza, Venelin Kozhuharov, Stepan Kunc, Francesca Lecce, Alessandro Lella, Axel Lindner, Maria Paola Lombardo, Giuseppe Lucente, Olympia Maliaka, Cristina Margalejo, Marios Maroudas, Luca Marsicano, Luca Merlo, Alessandro Mirizzi, Vasiliki A. Mitsou, Guido Mueller, Kai Murai, Toshiya Namikawa, Fumihiro Naokawa, Le Hoang Nguyen, Ciaran O'Hare, Tomas O'Shea, Ippei Obata, Ali Övgün, Francisco Gil Pedro, Giovanni Pierobon, Tanmay Kumar Poddar, Josef Pradler, Pierre Pugnat, Beyhan Puliçe, Raquel Quishpe, Georg G. Raffelt, Maria Ramos, Wolfram Ratzinger, Marco Regis, Mario Reig, Sophie Renner, Alessio Rettaroli, Nicole Righi, Andreas Ringwald, Laura R. Roberts, Keir K. Rogers, Qazal Rokn, Ophir M. Ruimi, Jaime Ruz, Kenichi Saikawa, Marco Scalisi, Andreas Schachner, Joern Schaffran, Kristof Schmieden, Matthias Schott, Javi Serra, Anton Sokolov, Paolo Spagnolo, Konstantin Springmann, Michael Staelens, Stefan Stelzl, Oscar Straniero, Marco Taoso, Elisa Todarello, Claudio Toni, Lorenzo Ubaldi, Federico Urban, Rodrigo Vicente, Luca Visinelli, Edoardo Vitagliano, Julia K. Vogel, Andreas Weiler, Samuel J. Witte, Michael Wurm, Wen Yin, Konstantin Zioutas

Abstract

Axions and other very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs), with masses below 1 GeV, arise naturally in many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics. In particular, they could offer a new framework to explain the nature of dark matter and may help address a range of puzzling observations in astrophysics and particle physics. This review provides an overview of ongoing WISP searches and outlines the prospects for the next decade, spanning their theoretical motivation, indirect signatures in astrophysical observations, and dedicated laboratory experiments. It is based on the work carried on by the EU-funded COST Action ``Cosmic WISPers in the Dark Universe: Theory, astrophysics, and experiments'' (CA21106, https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA21106). This network plays a key role in coordinating and supporting WISP searches across Europe, while also contributing to the development of a roadmap aimed at securing European leadership in this research area. It is emphasized that Europe is currently pursuing a rich, diverse, and cost-effective experimental program, with the potential to deliver one or more transformative discoveries.

The COSMIC WISPers White Paper: The physics case for Weakly Interacting Slim Particles

Abstract

Axions and other very weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs), with masses below 1 GeV, arise naturally in many extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics. In particular, they could offer a new framework to explain the nature of dark matter and may help address a range of puzzling observations in astrophysics and particle physics. This review provides an overview of ongoing WISP searches and outlines the prospects for the next decade, spanning their theoretical motivation, indirect signatures in astrophysical observations, and dedicated laboratory experiments. It is based on the work carried on by the EU-funded COST Action ``Cosmic WISPers in the Dark Universe: Theory, astrophysics, and experiments'' (CA21106, https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA21106). This network plays a key role in coordinating and supporting WISP searches across Europe, while also contributing to the development of a roadmap aimed at securing European leadership in this research area. It is emphasized that Europe is currently pursuing a rich, diverse, and cost-effective experimental program, with the potential to deliver one or more transformative discoveries.
Paper Structure (327 sections, 377 equations, 111 figures, 25 tables)

This paper contains 327 sections, 377 equations, 111 figures, 25 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. WISPs Theory and Model Building (Editors: A. de Giorgi, M. Reig & N. Righi)
  2. Low-energy WISP models from string theory
  3. Axions from string theory and moduli stabilisation (Author: A. Schachner)
  4. Introduction
  5. Axions from string theory
  6. Progress in moduli stabilisation
  7. Combinatorial cosmology and the KS axiverse
  8. Expected number of axions, mass spectrum and decay constants at low-energy from string theory and their statistics (Author: M. Cicoli)
  9. QCD axion from string theory (Author: M. Cicoli)
  10. The Axion Quality Problem: EFT vs UV (Authors: M. Reig and N. Righi)
  11. The Dark side of ALPs: phenomenological applications (Authors: F. Pedro, N. Righi, and M. Scalisi)
  12. Dark matter and dark radiation
  13. Axionic quintessence
  14. Early dark energy
  15. Dark photons and hidden sector degrees of freedom (Author: J. P. Conlon)
  16. ...and 312 more sections

Figures (111)

  • Figure 1: Participants of COSMIC WISPers during the General Meeting in Bari (IT), September 2023.
  • Figure 2: Number of the participants in the different WGs over the lifetime of the Action.
  • Figure 3: Gender and Young Researchers and Innovators (YRI) representation in the WGs.
  • Figure 4: Left: Relation between the decay constant $f_a$, the valid initial condition range $|\phi_0-\phi_{max}|$ and the inflationary scale $H_{inf}$ for axionic hill-top quintessence Cicoli:2021skd. Right: Observational bounds on the slopes of the scalar potential and kinetic coupling for multifield quintessence models. The solution with non-trivial axionic dynamics is a stable attractor in the grey-shaded region. Adapted from Ref. Cicoli:2020noz.
  • Figure 5: An illustration of a local string model, with the Standard Model realised at a singularity and other brane stacks present far away in the compactification. Figure adapted from Conlon:2006wz.
  • ...and 106 more figures