Related papers: A small weak scale from a small cosmological const…
We study the dynamical aspects of dark energy in the context of a non-minimally coupled scalar field with curvature and torsion. Whereas the scalar field acts as the source of the trace mode of torsion, a suitable constraint on the torsion…
A large hierarchy between the electroweak scale and virtually any new scale of beyond-Standard-Model physics is often claimed to be unnatural. Sometimes, the apparent disparity between the measured Higgs mass and the size of the typical…
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…
Weak-scale supersymmetry (SUSY) is well motivated as a technically natural solution to the gauge hierarchy problem. LHC limits on superpartners, however, have sharpened the Little Hierarchy problem, raising the question of why $m_{weak} \ll…
A scale invariant, Weyl geometric, Lagrangian approach to cosmology is explored, with a a scalar field phi of (scale) weight -1 as a crucial ingredient besides classical matter \cite{Tann:Diss,Drechsler:Higgs}. For a particularly simple…
For variable gravity models the strength of gravity, as measured by Newton's ``constant'' or the Planck mass, depends on the value of a scalar field, the cosmon. We discuss two simple four-parameter models with a quadratic or constant…
It is possible that the electroweak scale is low due to the fine-tuning of microscopic parameters, which can result from selection effects. The experimental discovery of new light fundamental scalars other than the Standard Model Higgs…
We suggest discovery targets for the Higgs boson, dark matter, and quantum gravity mass scales, motivated by the Dirac equation for the electron in deSitter space, and a sixth-order constraint between the electron QED parameters and the…
New constraints on resonance saturation in chiral perturbation theory are investigated. These constraints arise because each consistent saturation scheme must map to a representation of the full QCD chiral symmetry group. The low-energy…
The present measurement of the standard model (SM) parameters suggests that the Higgs effective potential has a maximum at the intermediate scale, and the electroweak (EW) vacuum is not absolutely stable. The simplest possibility for…
The cosmological constant and the Higgs mass seem unnaturally small and anthropically selected. We show that both can be efficiently scanned in Quantum Field Theories with a large enough number of vacua controllable thanks to approximated…
String theory has no parameter except the string scale, so a dynamically compactified solution to 4 dimensional spacetime should determine both the Planck scale and the cosmological constant $\Lambda$. In the racetrack K\"ahler uplift flux…
The minimal seesaw scenario can radiatively generate the Higgs potential to induce electroweak symmetry breaking while supplying an origin of the Higgs vacuum expectation value from an underlying Majorana scale. If the Higgs potential and…
Precision cosmology provides a sensitive probe of extremely weakly coupled states due to thermal freeze-in production, with subsequent decays impacting physics during well-tested cosmological epochs. We explore the cosmological implications…
We discuss the possibility that dark energy arises from a strongly-coupled Higgs-Yang-Mills set of interacting fields in the non-perturbative regime. We choose the simplest $SU(2)$ representation, which is compatible with the Cosmological…
Is it a mere accident that the weak scale is exactly so much smaller than the Planck scale, and at the same time exactly so much larger than the QCD scale? Or are the experimentally-measured values of the corresponding gauge couplings…
A cosmic scalar field evolving very slowly in time can account for the observed dark energy of the Universe. Unlike a cosmological constant, an evolving scalar field also has local spatial gradients due to gravity. If the scalar field has a…
Depending on the value of the Higgs mass, the Standard Model acquires an unstable region at large Higgs field values due to RG running of couplings, which we evaluate at 2-loop order. For currently favored values of the Higgs mass, this…
We propose an interpretation for the cosmological constant problem based on modeling the universe as a 3-brane embedded in the bulk of 5-dimensional supergravity with hypermultiplets. When solving the modified Friedmann equations the…
Weak scale supersymmetry (SUSY) remains a prime explanation for the radiative stability of the Higgs field. A natural account of the Higgs boson mass, however, strongly favors extensions of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM).…