Abstract: One of the targets of future cosmic microwave background (CMB) and baryon acoustic oscillation measurements is to improve the current accuracy in the neutrino sector and reach a much better sensitivity on extra dark radiation in the early Universe. In this paper, we study how these improvements can be translated into constraining power for well-motivated extensions of the standard model of elementary particles that involve axions thermalized before the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) phase transition by scatterings with gluons. Assuming a fiducial Lambda cold dark matter cosmological model, we simulate future data for Stage-IV CMB-like and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI)-like surveys and analyse a mixed scenario of axion and neutrino hot dark matter. We further account also for the effects of these QCD axions on the light element abundances predicted by big bang nucleosynthesis. The most constraining forecasted limits on the hot relic masses are m(a) less than or similar to 0.92 eV and n-ary sumation m(nu) less than or similar to 0.12 eV at 95 per cent Confidence Level, showing that future cosmic observations can substantially improve the current bounds, supporting multimessenger analyses of axion, neutrino, and primordial light element properties.

Abstract: We investigate the axion dark matter scenario (ADM), in which axions account for all of the dark matter in the Universe, in light of the most recent cosmological data. In particular, we use the Planck temperature data, complemented by WMAP E-polarization measurements, as well as the recent BICEP2 observations of B-modes. Baryon acoustic oscillation data, including those from the baryon oscillation spectroscopic survey, are also considered in the numerical analyses. We find that, in the minimal ADM scenario and for Delta(QCD) = 200 MeV, the full data set implies that the axion mass m(a) = 82.2 +/- 1.1 μeV [corresponding to the Peccei-Quinn symmetry being broken at a scale f(a) = (7.54 +/- 0.10) x 10(10) GeV], or m(a) = 76.6 +/- 2.6 μeV [f(a) = (8.08 +/- 0.27) x 10(10) GeV] when we allow for a nonstandard effective number of relativistic species N-eff. We also find a 2 sigma preference for N-eff > 3.046. The limit on the sum of neutrino masses is Sigma m(v) < 0.25 eV at 95% C.L. for N-eff = 3.046, or Sigma m(v) < 0.47 eV when N-eff is a free parameter. Considering extended scenarios where either the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w, the tensor spectral index n(t), or the running of the scalar index dn(s)/d ln k is allowed to vary does not change significantly the axion mass-energy density constraints. However, in the case of the full data set exploited here, there is a preference for a nonzero tensor index or scalar running, driven by the different tensor amplitudes implied by the Planck and BICEP2 observations. We also study the effect on our estimates of theoretical uncertainties, in particular the imprecise knowledge of the QCD scale Delta(QCD), in the calculation of the temperature-dependent axion mass. We find that in the simplest ADM scenario the Planck + WP data set implies that the axion mass m(a) = 63.7 +/- 1.2 μeV for Delta(QCD) = 400 MeV. We also comment on the possibility that axions do not make up for all the dark matter, or that the contribution of string-produced axions has been grossly underestimated; in that case, the values that we find for the mass can conservatively be considered as lower limits. Dark matter axions with mass in the 60-80 μeV (corresponding to an axion-photon coupling G(a gamma gamma) similar to 10(-14) GeV-1) range can, in principle, be detected by looking for axion-to-photon conversion occurring inside a tunable microwave cavity permeated by a high-intensity magnetic field, and operating at a frequency nu similar or equal to 15-20 GHz. This is out of the reach of current experiments like the axion dark matter experiment (limited to a maximum frequency of a few GHzs), but is, on the other hand, within the reach of the upcoming axion dark matter experiment-high frequency experiment that will explore the 4-40 GHz frequency range and then be sensitive to axion masses up to similar to 160 μeV.

Abstract: We present the cosmological bounds on the thermal axion mass in an extended cosmological scenario in which the primordial power spectrum of scalar perturbations differs from the usual power-law shape predicted by the simplest inflationary models. The power spectrum is instead modeled by means of a “piecewise cubic Hermite interpolating polynomial” (PCHIP). When using cosmic microwave background measurements combined with other cosmological data sets, the thermal axion mass constraints are degraded only slightly. The addition of the measurements of sigma(8) and Omega(m) from the 2013 Planck cluster catalog on galaxy number counts relaxes the bounds on the thermal axion mass, mildly favoring a similar to 1 eV axion mass, regardless of the model adopted for the primordial power spectrum. However, in general, such a preference disappears if the sum of the three active neutrino masses is also considered as a free parameter in our numerical analyses, due to the strong correlation between the masses of these two hot thermal relics.