A global analysis of axion-like particle interactions using SMEFT fits

Abstract

Abstract In the presence of axions or axion-like particles (ALPs) that couple to the Standard Model via dimension-five interactions, dimension-six SMEFT interactions are generated via renormalization-group evolution. As many of these SMEFT contributions are experimentally tightly constrained, this “ALP-SMEFT interference” can be used to derive indirect bounds on the ALP couplings to the Standard Model particles. We present a global analysis of the Wilson coefficients of the ALP effective Lagrangian based on Higgs, top, and low-energy data. The obtained bounds are model independent and are competitive or even stronger than direct bounds in the GeV to TeV ALP-mass range.