Related papers: Electroweak Instantons, Axions, and the Cosmologic…
The presence of a topological susceptibility in the electroweak sector of the Standard Model motivates the existence of a good quality weak axion $a_W$, associated with the spontaneous breaking of $B\!+\!L$. Its anomalous couplings and tiny…
Taking the recently reported non-zero rotation angle of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) linear polarization $\beta=0.35\pm0.14{\rm\, deg}$ as the hint for a pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson quintessence dark energy (DE), we study the…
We propose a new electroweak baryogenesis scenario in high-scale supersymmetric (SUSY) models. We consider a singlet extension of the minimal SUSY standard model introducing additional vector-like multiplets. We show that the strongly…
We propose a scenario in which a simple power-like primary spectrum for protons with sources at cosmological distances leads to a quantitative description of all the details of the observed cosmic ray spectrum for energies from 10^{17} eV…
In principle, the baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be generated at the electroweak phase transition but the experimental lower limit on the Higgs mass seems to rule out a Standard Model scenario. However, it has been shown recently that…
Electroweak baryogenesis is severely challenged in its traditional settings: the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, and in more general two Higgs doublet models. Fine tuning of parameters is required, or large couplings leading to a…
We explore the viability of baryogenesis from light scalar decays after the electroweak phase transition. A minimal model of this kind is constructed with new CP violating interactions involving a heavy fourth family. The departure from…
The interactions of electroweak gauge bosons are severely constrained by the symmetries inferred from low energy observables. The exploration of the dynamics of electroweak symmetry breaking requires therefore both an experimental…
If cosmic strings are present at the electroweak phase transition, they can act as seeds on which bubbles of true vacuum nucleate. We explore the nature of such a phase transition, in particular the wall velocity and thickness of the…
Recently, a new mechanism to generate a naturally small electroweak scale has been proposed. It exploits the coupling of the Higgs to an axion-like field and a long era in the early universe where the axion unchains a dynamical screening of…
We explore the scalar phenomenology of a model of electroweak scale neutrinos that incorporates the presence of a lepton number violating singlet scalar. An analysis of the pseudoscalar-Majoron field associated to this singlet field is…
We describe a new effect which produces baryons at a first order electroweak phase transition. It operates when there is a CP-violating field present on propagating bubble walls. The novel aspect is that it involves a purely classical…
Scale invariance may be a classical symmetry which is broken radiatively. This provides a simple way to stabilise the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking against radiative corrections. But for such a theory to be fully realistic, it must…
It is shown that dark energy can be obtained from the interplay of the Higgs boson and the inflaton. A key element is the realization that electroweak symmetry breaking can trigger a second phase of rolling of the inflaton, which, when…
The lightest electroweak baryon as a topological object is investigated by using a general effective Lagrangian of composite electroweak symmetry breaking and the spin-independent electroweak baryon-nucleon scattering cross section is…
Precision measurements of rare particle physics phenomena (flavor oscillations and decays, electric dipole moments, etc.) are often sensitive to the effects of new physics encoded in higher-dimensional operators with Wilson coefficients…
The energy dependence of the electroweak gauge couplings has not been measured above the weak scale. We propose that percent-level measurements of the energy dependence of $\alpha_{1,2}$ can be performed now at the LHC and at future higher…
Presented at the 1992 Meeting of the DPF, Fermilab. The electroweak phase transition is reviewed in light of some recent developments. Emphasis is on the issue whether the transition is first or second order and its possible role in the…
In this letter we show that magnetic fields generated at the electroweak phase transition are most likely too weak to explain the void magnetic fields apparently observed today unless they have considerable helicity. We show that, in the…
Recently, it has been suggested that the spectrum of physical states in the Standard Model may include an ultralight pseudo-scalar, denoted by $\eta_{\rm w}$, in analogy with the $\eta'$ state arising from the strong interactions. We find…