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  • Open Access

High-quality axion from exact SUSY chiral dynamics

Tony Gherghetta1,*, Hitoshi Murayama2,3,4,†,‡, Bea Noether2,4,§, and Pablo Quílez5,∥

  • *Contact author: tgher@umn.edu
  • †Contact author: hitoshi@berkeley.edu, hitoshi.murayama@ipmu.jp
  • ‡Hamamatsu Professor.
  • §Contact author: bea_noether@berkeley.edu
  • ∥Contact author: pquilez@ucsd.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115064 – Published 26 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/npzk-4b8w

Abstract

We use supersymmetric chiral dynamics perturbed by anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking to obtain a high-quality, composite axion that solves the strong CP problem. The strong dynamics arises from a supersymmetric SU(10) chiral gauge theory with massless matter chiral superfields. This leads to a stable, nonsupersymmetric vacuum, calculated exactly, where a spontaneously broken U(1) global symmetry, identified with the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry, gives rise to a composite QCD axion. The chiral gauge theory also admits a discrete Z4 (or Z8,16) gauge symmetry that forbids PQ-violating operators up to dimension eight. An extension to an SU(14)×Z12 chiral gauge theory incorporates SO(10) grand unification where the unification scale is identified with the PQ-breaking scale and PQ-violating operators are forbidden up to dimension 20. The supersymmetry breaking scale, near 100 TeV, ameliorates the Higgs hierarchy problem, while colored Nambu–Goldstone bosons may be detected at future colliders via decays to gluons or form heavy isotopes.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115064– Published 26 June, 2026
  • Received 1 October 2025
  • Accepted 27 May 2026
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