A QCD Axion from Higher Dimensional Gauge Field

Abstract

We point out that a QCD axion solving the strong CP problem can arise naturally from parity-odd gauge field C_M in 5-dimensional (5D) orbifold field theory. The required axion coupling to the QCD anomaly comes from the 5D Chern-Simons coupling, and all other unwanted U(1)_{PQ} breaking axion couplings can be avoided naturally by the 5D gauge symmetry of C_M and the 5D locality. If the fifth dimension is warped, the resulting axion scale is suppressed by small warp factor compared to the Planck scale, thereby the model can generate naturally an intermediate axion scale f_a=10^{10} - 10^{12}GeV.