English

A rich structure of renormalization group flows for Higgs-like models in 4 dimensions

High Energy Physics - Theory 2026-04-07 v4 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We consider 22 coupled Higgs doublets which transform in the usual way under SU(2). By constructing marginal operators which satisfy an operator product expansion based on the SU(2) Lie algebra, we can obtain a rich pattern of renormalization group (RG) flows which includes lines of fixed points and more interestingly, cyclic RG flows which are unavoidable in this model. The hamiltonian is pseudo-hermitian, H=KHKH^\dagger = {\cal K} H {\cal K}^\dagger with K{\cal K} unitary satisfying K2=1{\cal K}^2 =1, thus the model is non-unitary. The hamiltonian still has real eigenvalues, but the non-unitarity is manifested in negative norm states. Based on a generalized optical theorem for pseudo-hermitian hamiltonians, we show that our model is in fact unitary below the threshold for particle/anti-particle pair production. It is thus unitary in the non-relativistic limit, which opens up some potential applications to condensed matter physics. We argue that our model breaks CP{\cal C}{\cal P} symmetry. Upon spontaneous symmetry breaking, the Higgs-like fields have an infinite number of vacuum expectation values vnv_n which satisfy ``Russian Doll" scaling vne2nλv_n \sim e^{2 n \lambda} where n=1,2,3,n=1,2,3,\ldots and λ\lambda is the period of one RG cycle which is an RG invariant. We speculate that this Russian Doll RG flow can perhaps resolve the so-called hierarchy problem and may shed light on the origin of ``families" in the Standard Model of particle physics. If after spontaneous symmetry breaking of the SU(2) to U(1) a cyclic RG with period λ\lambda is operative up to the electro-weak scale, then this admits 3 RG cycles, i.e. 3 families of quarks and leptons. The strongest constraints on the RG period λ\lambda comes from the phenomenological Koide formula, wherein λπ/2\lambda \approx \pi/2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.07476,
  title  = {A rich structure of renormalization group flows for Higgs-like models in 4 dimensions},
  author = {André LeClair},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.07476},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Current version: We added a discussion of the Koide phenomenological formula