Reconciling ALP Dark Matter and Electroweak Baryogenesis through First-Order Electroweak Phase Transition

Abstract: We show that an axionlike particle (ALP) can simultaneously generate the baryon asymmetry and constitute dark matter through dynamics triggered by a first-order electroweak phase transition (EWPT). In our proposal, the transition briefly reshapes the ALP potential via a temperature-dependent vacuum expectation value of a scalar field $S$, responsible for making the EWPT of first order, inducing a transient mass enhancement of ALP via higher-dimensional $U(1)$-breaking operator(s). This sudden kick generates a large ALP velocity near the onset of EWPT enabling the broadening of relic satisfied parameter space and predict a complementary stochastic gravitational-wave signal from the underlying first-order transition. We further show that the same ALP dynamics can naturally fuel electroweak baryogenesis through its coupling to electroweak anomaly.