Theory: Axion String Source Modelling

by Amelia Drew (ICTP Trieste)

Tuesday 29 Apr 2025, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Berlin

SR2

Axion strings are topological defects that arise in particle physics models with a spontaneously broken global U(1) symmetry, motivated, for example, by the Peccei-Quinn mechanism. They are predicted to emit massless axions, massive particles and gravitational waves. If we are to detect axion dark matter in the post-inflationary symmetry breaking scenario, understanding the spectrum of the axions emitted from a network of strings will be crucial. I will detail my work modelling the dependence of axion string radiation on the curvature of the string relative to the string width using adaptive mesh refinement simulations.