Dark matter axions revisited

We study for what specific values of the theoretical parameters the axion can form the totality of cold dark matter. We examine the allowed axion parameter region in the light of recent data collected by the WMAP5 mission plus baryon acoustic oscillations and supernovae, and assume an inflationary scenario and standard cosmology. We also upgrade the treatment of anharmonicities in the axion potential, which we find important in certain cases. If the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is restored after inflation, we recover the usual relation between axion mass and density, so that an axion mass ma=(85±3)μeV makes the axion 100% of the cold dark matter. If the Peccei-Quinn symmetry is broken during inflation, the axion can instead be 100% of the cold dark matter for ma<15meV provided a specific value of the initial misalignment angle θi is chosen in correspondence to a given value of its mass ma. Large values of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking scale correspond to small, perhaps uncomfortably small, values of the initial misalignment angle θi. © 2009 The American Physical Society.