Axions: Bose Einstein condensate or classical field?

The axion is a motivated dark matter candidate, so it would be interesting to find features in Large Scale Structures specific to axion dark matter. Such features were proposed for a Bose Einstein condensate of axions, leading to confusion in the literature (to which I contributed) about whether axi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAstroparticle physics Vol. 65; pp. 101 - 107
Main Author Davidson, Sacha
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 01.05.2015
Elsevier
Subjects
Axions
Boundary element method
Condensates
Condensing
Confusion
Dark matter
Estimates
Evaporation
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Mathematical analysis
Misalignment
Physics
Structure formation
Dark matter
Axions
Structure formation
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The axion is a motivated dark matter candidate, so it would be interesting to find features in Large Scale Structures specific to axion dark matter. Such features were proposed for a Bose Einstein condensate of axions, leading to confusion in the literature (to which I contributed) about whether axions condense due to their gravitational interactions. This note argues that the Bose Einstein condensation of axions is a red herring: the axion dark matter produced by the misalignment mechanism is already a classical field, which has the distinctive features attributed to the axion condensate (BE condensates are described as classical fields). This note also estimates that the rate at which axion particles condense to the field, or the field evaporates to particles, is negligible.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0927-6505
1873-2852
DOI:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2014.12.007