Related papers: Gravity, Scale Invariance and the Hierarchy Proble…
We address the question of whether the quantum scale-invariant theories introduced in [1] are renormalizable or play the role of effective field theories that are valid below the Planck scale $M_P$. We show that starting from two-loop level…
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…
It is widely believed that the top loop corrections to the Higgs effective potential destabilise the electroweak (EW) vacuum and that, imposing stability, lower bounds on the Higgs mass can be derived. With the help of a scalar-Yukawa…
A possible explanation is offered for the longstanding mystery surrounding the meaning of the fine structure constant. The reasoning is based on a discrete self-similar cosmological paradigm that has shown promise in explaining the general…
We argue that the familiar gauge hierarchy between the fundamental Planck scale M_{Pl} and the electroweak scale M_{W}, can be naturally explained in higher dimensional theories with relatively large radii (R_c > 1/M_{Pl}) extra dimensions.…
The possibility of a modification of special relativity with an invariant energy scale playing the role of a minimum energy is explored. Consistency with the equivalence of different inertial frames is obtained by an appropriate choice of a…
The role that the auxiliary scalar field $\phi$ played in Brans-Dicke cosmology is discussed. If a constant vacuum energy is assumed to be the origin of dark energy, then the corresponding density parameter would be a quantity varying with…
Quantum gravity can determine the dependence of gauge couplings in a scalar field, which is related to possible fifth forces and time varying fundamental "constants". This prediction is based on the scaling solution of functional flow…
The claim that at the so-called Planck scale our current physics breaks down and a new theory of quantum gravity is required is ubiquitous, but the evidence is shakier than the confidence of those assertions warrants. In this paper, I…
The Planck scale is usually believed to be an unpassable wall. Putting a cutoff there and thinking of it as a quantized spacetime entity shows that. However, this is exactly the cause of many problems in quantum gravity. The cosmological…
It is shown that gravitation naturally emerges from the standard model of particle physics if local scale invariance is imposed in the context of a single conformal (Weyl-symmetric) theory. Gravitation is then conformally-related to the…
We show that both the Planck and electroweak mass scales can be generated from conformal gravity via the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism of dimensional transmutation. At the first step, the Planck scale is generated via the Coleman-Weinberg…
In the standard model, the weak scale is the only parameter with mass dimensions. This means that the standard model itself can not explain the origin of the weak scale. On the other hand, from the results of recent accelerator experiments,…
Scale invariance has received very little attention in physics. Nevertheless, it provides a natural conceptual foundation for a relational understanding of the universe, where absolute size loses meaning and only dimensionless ratios retain…
The coupling of gravity to a scalar field raises a number of interesting questions of principle since the usual minimal coupling obtained by replacing ordinary derivatives with covariant derivatives is not available -- they are the same…
We study the general class of gravitational field theories constructed on the basis of scale invariance (and therefore absence of any mass parameters) and invariance under transverse diffeomorphisms (TDiff), which are the 4-volume…
We propose a new framework for solving the hierarchy problem which does not rely on either supersymmetry or technicolor. In this framework, the gravitational and gauge interactions become united at the weak scale, which we take as the only…
I argue that the linearity of quantum mechanics is an emergent feature at the Planck scale, along with the manifold structure of space-time. In this regime the usual causality violation objections to nonlinearity do not apply, and nonlinear…
The measured values of the Higgs and top quark mass indicate that the electroweak vacuum is metastable if there is no new physics below the Planck scale. This is at odds with a period of high scale inflation. A non-minimal coupling between…
The Standard Model of the elementary particles is controlled by more than 20 parameters, of which it is not known today how they can be linked to deeper principles. Any attempt to clean up this theory, in general results in producing more…