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arXiv · 1003.4233

A viable axion from gauged flavor symmetries

David Berenstein·Erik Perkins
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Abstract

We consider a string inspired non-supersymmetric extension of the standard model with gauged anomalous U(1) flavor symmetries. Consistency requires the Green-Schwarz mechanism to cancel mixed anomalies. The additional required scalars provide Stuckelberg masses for the $Z'$ particles associated to the gauged flavor symmetry, so they decouple at low energies. Our models also include a complex scalar field $ϕ$ to generate Froggatt-Nielsen mass terms for light particles giving a partial solution to the fermion mass problem. A residual approximate (anomalous) global symmetry survives at low energies. The associated pseudo-Goldstone mode is the phase of the $ϕ$ scalar field, and it becomes the dominant contribution to the physical axion. An effective field theory analysis that includes neutrino masses gives a prediction for the axion decay constant. We find a simple modeI where the axion decay constant is in the center of the allowed window.

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David Berenstein, Erik Perkins. 2010-07-01. A viable axion from gauged flavor symmetries. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.82.107701

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