Grand Color axion

We present a model that solves the strong CP problem via an axion parametrically heavier than the standard one. Within this picture the Standard Model quarks are embedded into a larger non-abelian Grand Color group that at high scales splits into ordinary QCD and an additional confining dynamics under which exotic chiral fermions are charged. Crucially, the vacuum expectation value of the axion is automatically relaxed to zero because the only renormalizable source of explicit CP violation, beyond those encoded in the topological angles, is contained in the Standard Model Yukawa couplings, and is therefore very suppressed. The Grand Color axion potential is controlled by the scale of the new confining group and is much larger than the QCD contribution, such that its dynamics is less exposed to the so-called axion quality problem. Potentially observable corrections to the effective topological angle can also arise, in our model as well as in a large class of heavy axion scenarios, from non-renormalizable Peccei-Quinn-conserving interactions, which introduce a new heavy axion quality problem. Our model has a very minimal field content, it relies entirely on gauge invariance and does not require the introduction of additional symmetries beyond the usual one postulated by Peccei and Quinn. The phenomenology is very rich and can be tested at colliders as well as via cosmological observations. A particularly interesting portion of parameter space predicts a visible Grand Color axion of mass above the GeV and decay constant larger than a few TeV.

Automated summary

We propose a model that addresses the strong CP problem by introducing a heavier axion than the standard one. In this model, the quarks of the Standard Model are embedded into a larger non-abelian Grand Color group that splits into ordinary QCD and additional confining dynamics. The model has a minimal field content and can be tested through collider experiments and cosmological observations.