Higgs instability and de Sitter radiation

If the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particle physics is assumed to hold good to arbitrarily high energies, then, for the best fit values of the parameters, the scalar potential of the Standard Model Higgs field turns negative at a high scale μinst. If the physics beyond the SM is such that it d...

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Main Authors: Gaurav Goswami, Subhendra Mohanty
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2015-12-01
Series:Physics Letters B
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269315007789
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author Gaurav Goswami
Subhendra Mohanty
author_facet Gaurav Goswami
Subhendra Mohanty
author_sort Gaurav Goswami
collection DOAJ
description If the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particle physics is assumed to hold good to arbitrarily high energies, then, for the best fit values of the parameters, the scalar potential of the Standard Model Higgs field turns negative at a high scale μinst. If the physics beyond the SM is such that it does not modify this feature of the Higgs potential and if the Hubble parameter during inflation (Hinf) is such that Hinf≫μinst, then, quantum fluctuations of the SM Higgs during inflation make it extremely unlikely that after inflation it will be found in the metastable vacuum at the weak scale. In this work, we assume that (i) during inflation, the SM Higgs is in Bunch–Davies vacuum state, and, (ii) the question about the stability of the effective potential must be answered in the frame of the freely falling observer (just like in Minkowski spacetime), and then use the well-known fact that the freely falling observer finds Bunch–Davies vacuum to be in thermal state to show that the probability to end up in the electroweak vacuum after inflation is reasonably high.
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spelling doaj.art-91629bdad0f142d281f8119a8030b5f52022-12-22T00:59:58ZengElsevierPhysics Letters B0370-26931873-24452015-12-01751C11311810.1016/j.physletb.2015.10.027Higgs instability and de Sitter radiationGaurav Goswami0Subhendra Mohanty1Physical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009, IndiaPhysical Research Laboratory, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009, IndiaIf the Standard Model (SM) of elementary particle physics is assumed to hold good to arbitrarily high energies, then, for the best fit values of the parameters, the scalar potential of the Standard Model Higgs field turns negative at a high scale μinst. If the physics beyond the SM is such that it does not modify this feature of the Higgs potential and if the Hubble parameter during inflation (Hinf) is such that Hinf≫μinst, then, quantum fluctuations of the SM Higgs during inflation make it extremely unlikely that after inflation it will be found in the metastable vacuum at the weak scale. In this work, we assume that (i) during inflation, the SM Higgs is in Bunch–Davies vacuum state, and, (ii) the question about the stability of the effective potential must be answered in the frame of the freely falling observer (just like in Minkowski spacetime), and then use the well-known fact that the freely falling observer finds Bunch–Davies vacuum to be in thermal state to show that the probability to end up in the electroweak vacuum after inflation is reasonably high.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269315007789Physics beyond the Standard ModelHiggs vacuum instabilityInflationGibbons–Hawking temperature
spellingShingle Gaurav Goswami
Subhendra Mohanty
Higgs instability and de Sitter radiation
Physics Letters B
Physics beyond the Standard Model
Higgs vacuum instability
Inflation
Gibbons–Hawking temperature
title Higgs instability and de Sitter radiation
title_full Higgs instability and de Sitter radiation
title_fullStr Higgs instability and de Sitter radiation
title_full_unstemmed Higgs instability and de Sitter radiation
title_short Higgs instability and de Sitter radiation
title_sort higgs instability and de sitter radiation
topic Physics beyond the Standard Model
Higgs vacuum instability
Inflation
Gibbons–Hawking temperature
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269315007789
work_keys_str_mv AT gauravgoswami higgsinstabilityanddesitterradiation
AT subhendramohanty higgsinstabilityanddesitterradiation