Related papers: A Dynamical Weak Scale from Inflation
There is growing evidence that the small weak scale may be related to self-organized criticality. In this regard, we note that if the strange quark were lighter, the QCD phase transition could have been first order, possibly exhibiting…
For a narrow band of values of the top quark and Higgs boson masses, the Standard Model Higgs potential develops a false minimum at energies of about $10^{16}$ GeV, where primordial Inflation could have started in a cold metastable state. A…
We propose a model for cosmic inflation which is based on an effective description of strongly interacting, nonsupersymmetric matter within the framework of dynamical abelian projection and centerization. The underlying gauge symmetry is…
We examine if the cosmological relaxation mechanism, which was proposed recently as a new solution to the hierarchy problem, can be compatible with high reheating temperature well above the weak scale. As the barrier potential disappears at…
I study a stochastic approach to the recently introduced fresh inflation model for super Hubble scales. I find that the state loses its coherence at the end of the fresh inflationary period as a consequence of the damping of the…
We examine the dynamics of inflation driven by multiple, interacting scalar fields and derive a multi field version of the Hubble slow roll expansion. We show that the properties of this expansion naturally generalize those of the single…
We briefly review several Higgs inflation models and discuss their cosmological implications. We first classify the inflation models according to the predicted value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio: (i) $r = {\cal O}(0.01-0.1)$, (ii) $r =…
A gauge singlet scalar with non-minimal coupling to gravity can drive inflation and later freeze out to become cold dark matter. We explore this idea by revisiting inflation in the singlet direction (S-inflation) and Higgs Portal Dark…
Current cosmological models require the universe to be in a very smooth initial state before the onset of inflation, a situation to which Penrose ascribes a vanishingly small probability, leading to his proposal of a Conformal Cyclic…
We refine and update the metastability constraint on the Standard Model top and Higgs masses, by analytically including gravitational corrections to the vacuum decay rate. Present best-fit ranges of the top and Higgs masses mostly lie in…
Experimental data suggest that the Higgs potential has a lower ground state at high field values. Consequently, decaying from the electroweak to the true vacuum nucleates bubbles that expand rapidly and can have dire consequences for our…
We investigate basic consequences of the assumption that the mass scale of the perturbative sector responsible for the spontaneous symmetry breaking is generated dynamically in a theory with a large UV scale. It is assumed that in addition…
The Standard Model Higgs potential becomes unstable at large field values. After clarifying the issue of gauge dependence of the effective potential, we study the cosmological evolution of the Higgs field in presence of this instability…
Motivated by the gauge theory of gravity with local scaling symmetry proposed recently in 1712.04537 and 1506.01807, we investigate whether the scalar field therein can be responsible for the inflation. We show that the classical theory…
The BICEP2 experiment determined the Hubble parameter during inflation to be about $10^{14}$ GeV. Such high inflation scale is in tension with the QCD axion dark matter if the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry remains broken during and after…
The measurement of the Higgs mass at the LHC has confirmed that the Standard Model electroweak vacuum is a shallow local minimum and is not absolutely stable. In addition to a probable unacceptably fast tunneling to the deep true minimum,…
We consider inflation in a universe with a positive cosmological constant and a nonminimally coupled scalar field, in which the field couples both quadratically and quartically to the Ricci scalar. When considered in the Einstein frame and…
An anthropic understanding of the cosmological constant requires that the vacuum energy at late time scans from one patch of the universe to another. If the vacuum energy during inflation also scans, the various patches of the universe…
In post LHC era the old idea of cosmological vacuum relaxation of the Higgs mass that does not require any new physics in the vicinity of LHC energies acquires a new meaning. I discuss how this concept of naturanless differs from the…
Self-organised criticality, realised through cosmological dynamics in the early universe, is an alternative paradigm for addressing the electroweak hierarchy problem. In this scenario, an unnaturally light Higgs boson is the result of…