English

The Weak Scale from BBN

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2015-06-22 v1

Abstract

The measured values of the weak scale, vv, and the first generation masses, mu,d,em_{u,d,e}, are simultaneously explained in the multiverse, with all these parameters scanning independently. At the same time, several remarkable coincidences are understood. Small variations in these parameters away from their measured values lead to the instability of hydrogen, the instability of heavy nuclei, and either a hydrogen or a helium dominated universe from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In the 4d parameter space of (mu,md,me,v)(m_u,m_d,m_e,v), catastrophic boundaries are reached by separately increasing each parameter above its measured value by a factor of (1.4,1.3,2.5,5)(1.4,1.3,2.5,\sim5), respectively. The fine-tuning problem of the weak scale in the Standard Model is solved: as vv is increased beyond the observed value, it is impossible to maintain a significant cosmological hydrogen abundance for any values of mu,d,em_{u,d,e} that yield both hydrogen and heavy nuclei stability. For very large values of vv a new regime is entered where weak interactions freeze out before the QCD phase transition. The helium abundance becomes independent of vv and is determined by the cosmic baryon and lepton asymmetries. To maintain our explanation of vv from the anthropic cost of helium dominance then requires universes with such large vv to be rare in the multiverse. Implications of this are explored, including the possibility that new physics below 10 TeV cuts off the fine-tuning in vv.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.0551,
  title  = {The Weak Scale from BBN},
  author = {Lawrence J. Hall and David Pinner and Joshua T. Ruderman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.0551},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

26 pages plus appendix, 13 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-22T05:45:57.194Z