"But, in the second new study, published Feb. 25 in the journal Nature Communications, researchers used one of the world's largest supercomputers at Berkeley Lab's National Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) to simulate when axions would have been created almost immediately after the Big Bang.
In their simulation, the team was able to factor in the total mass of dark matter in the universe and the total number of axions produced. This allowed them to estimate what the axion mass could possibly be.
They found that the axion's mass would be more than twice as big as theorists have expected: 40-180 microelectron volts (roughly equivalent to one 10-billionth the mass of an electron, according to a statement.)
"Our work provides the most precise estimate to date of the axion mass and points to a specific range of masses that is not currently being explored in the laboratory," Safdi said. "
My note. Certainly various initial conditions must be assumed to simulate axions in this approach. At some point, DM must be clearly identified and firmly established. I am looking to see DM show up on the Periodic Table too
The paper cited in this article, Dark matter from axion strings with adaptive mesh refinement,
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28669-y, contains numerous equations. It would be good in plain language to show where in the BB model, all the axions appear like Planck time, Planck length. As space.com article states, "...to simulate when axions would have been created almost immediately after the Big Bang."
What defines this? Planck time, Planck length, some other time like just before inflation, post-inflation? What size was the universe when axions appear after the BB? 10^-27 m diameter, 10^-35 m diameter? What size is the universe when the CMBR appears? Cosmology calculators show at least some 80-82 million light years in diameter. I feel this should be clearly shown to the public that the simulation is calculating to create the axions.
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