Quintessence Axion Potential Induced by Electroweak Instanton Effects

Recent cosmological observations suggest the presence of small but nonzero cosmological constant Λcos ≃ (2 × 10−3 eV)4. It is an intriguing possibility that such a small cosmological constant is supplied by the potential energy density of an ultralight axion-like field (called as quintessence axion). If this axion couples to the electroweak gauge fields, its potential may be generated by the electroweak instanton effects. We calculate the axion potential assuming the supersymmetric standard model and obtain a surprising result that the induced energy density of the quintessence axion field is very close to the value suggested from the observations.