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  • Letter
  • Open Access

All axion dark matter from supersymmetric models

Howard Baer1,*, Vernon Barger2,†, Dibyashree Sengupta3,4,‡, and Kairui Zhang1,§

  • *Contact author: baer@ou.edu
  • †Contact author: barger@pheno.wisc.edu
  • ‡Contact author: Dibyashree.Sengupta@roma1.infn.it
  • §Contact author: kzhang25@ou.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 111, L111702 – Published 25 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1n3m-g69m

Abstract

Supersymmetric models accompanied by certain anomaly-free discrete R symmetries ZnR are attractive in that 1. the R symmetry (which can arise from compactified string theory as a remnant of the broken 10-d Lorentz symmetry) forbids unwanted superpotential terms while allowing for the generation of an accidental, approximate global U(1)PQ symmetry needed to solve the strong CP problem and 2. they provide a raison d’etre for an otherwise ad-hoc R-parity conservation. We augment the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) by two additional ZnR- and Peccei-Quinn (PQ)-charged fields X and Y wherein supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking at an intermediate scale mhidden leads to PQ breaking at a scale fa∼1011  GeV leading to a SUSY Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky (DFSZ) axion. The same SUSY breaking can trigger R-parity breaking via higher-dimensional operators leading to tiny R-violating couplings of order (fa/mP)N so that both U(1)PQ and R parity emerge as accidental, approximate symmetries. For Z4R and Z8R, we find only an N=1 suppression. Then the lightest SUSY particle (LSP) of the MSSM becomes unstable with a lifetime of order 10−3−101 s so the LSPs all decay away before the present epoch. That leaves a universe with all axion cold dark matter and no weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in accord with recent LZ(2024) WIMP search results.

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Phys. Rev. D 111, L111702– Published 25 June, 2025
  • Received 13 February 2025
  • Accepted 4 June 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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