The QCD axion is a promising candidate of the dark matter. In this paper, we discuss elastic scattering processes between nucleons and the QCD axion dark matter. We point out that the cross section can be enhanced by more than O(1025) by the coherent effect, compared to classical processes. As a result, for example, we show that QCD axions may scatter at the sun with O(1) probability for fa≲1011 GeV. In addition, one may expect stimulated emission effects can also enhance the cross section because the number density of the axion DM is very large. The enhancement factor can be as large as another O(1025) and, if the factor exists, the force from the dark matter wind may be detected via, e.g., torsion balance experiments. However, it is also found that there is a cancellation of the stimulated emission factor and the force is too small to be detected.

We argue that under a set of simple assumptions the multiverse leads to low-energy supersymmetry with the spectrum often called spread or minisplit supersymmetry: the gauginos are in the TeV region with the other superpartners 2 or 3 orders of magnitude heavier. We present a particularly simple realization of supersymmetric grand unified theory using this idea.

A class of supersymmetric grand unified theories is introduced that has a single scale below the cutoff, that of the supersymmetry breaking masses m ̃. For a wide range of the dimensionless parameters, agreement with the observed mass of the Higgs boson determines m ̃ ∼ 10 9-1013 GeV, yielding Intermediate Scale Supersymmetry. We show that within this framework it is possible for seesaw neutrino masses, axions, and inflation to be described by the scale m, offering the possibility of a unified origin of disparate phenomena. Neutrino masses allowing for thermal leptogenesis can be obtained, and the axion decay constant lies naturally in the range f a ∼ 109-1011 GeV, consistent with a recent observational suggestion of high scale inflation. A minimal SU(5) model is presented that illustrates these features. In this model, the only states at the grand unified scale are those of the heavy gauge supermultiplet. The grand unified partners of the Higgs doublets have a mass of order m, leading to the dominant proton decay mode p → v ̄ K +, which may be probed in upcoming experiments. Dark matter may be winos, with mass environmentally selected to the TeV scale, and/or axions. Gauge coupling unification is found to be successful, especially if the wino is at the TeV scale. © 2014 The Author(s).

Higgsino has been intensively searched for in the LHC experiments in recent years. Currently, there is an uncharted region beyond the LEP Higgsino mass limit where the mass splitting between the neutral and charged Higgsinos is around 0.3-1 GeV, which is unexplored by either the soft di-lepton or disappearing track searches. This region is, however, of great importance from a phenomenological point of view, as many supersymmetric models predict such a mass spectrum. In this Letter, we propose a possibility of filling this gap by using a soft microdisplaced track in addition to the monojet event selection, which allows us to discriminate a signature of the charged Higgsino decay from the standard model background. It is found that this new strategy is potentially sensitive to a Higgsino mass of ≲180(250)  GeV at the LHC Run2 (HL-LHC) for a charged-neutral mass splitting of ≃0.5  GeV.