Related papers: Mass Hierarchy and Vacuum Energy
Dynamical scanning of the Higgs mass by an axion-like particle during inflation may provide a cosmological component to explaining part of the hierarchy problem. We propose a novel interplay of this cosmological relaxation mechanism with…
If spacetime contains large compact extra dimensions, the fundamental mass scale of nature, $Lambda$, may be close to the weak scale, allowing gravitational physics to significantly modify electroweak symmetry breaking. Operators of the…
In a recently proposed Higgs-Seesaw model the observed scale of dark energy results from a metastable false vacuum energy associated with mixing of the standard model Higgs particle and a scalar associated with new physics at the GUT or…
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 cosmological dynamics in the theory of gravity with the scalar field possessing the nonminimal kinetic coupling to curvature given as $\kappa G^{\mu\nu}\phi_{,\mu}\phi_{,\nu}$, and the Higgs-like potential…
We present an approach to the problem of vacuum energy in cosmology, based on dynamical screening of Lambda on the horizon scale. We review first the physical basis of vacuum energy as a phenomenon connected with macroscopic boundary…
Gyroscopic systems in classical and quantum field theory are characterized by the presence of at least two scalar degrees of freedom and by terms that mix fields and their time derivatives in the quadratic Lagrangian. In Minkowski…
Whether the Standard Model electroweak vacuum is stable, metastable or unstable depends crucially on the top mass (and, to a lesser extent, on other measurable quantities). These topics are reviewed and updated by taking into account the…
The accelerating expansion of the Universe points to a small positive vacuum energy density and negative vacuum pressure. A strong candidate is the cosmological constant in Einstein's equations of General Relativity. The vacuum dark energy…
We study the cosmological evolution of the fine structure constant, $\alpha$, and the proton-to-electron mass ratio, $\mu=m_p/m_e$, in the context of a generic class of models where the gauge kinetic function is a linear function of a…
We report on an attempt to solve the gauge hierarchy problem in the framework of higher dimensional gauge theories. Both classical Higgs mass and quadratically divergent quantum correction to the mass are argued to vanish. Hence the…
The cosmological constant problem is a failure of naturalness and suggests that a fine-tuning mechanism is at work, which may also address the hierarchy problem. An example -- supported by Weinberg's successful prediction of the…
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…
The Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) bounds the mass of a particle by its charge. It is expected that this bound can not be below the ultraviolet cut-off scale of the effective theory. Recently, an extension of the WGC was proposed in the…
The discovery of the Higgs boson by the LHC and the measurement of its mass at around 125 GeV, taken together with the absence of signals of physics beyond the standard model, make it possible that we might live in a metastable electroweak…
Alternative forms of the solutions to the quantum field equations and their implications for physical theory are considered. Incorporation of these alternative solution forms, herein deemed "supplemental solutions", into the development of…
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…
Recent results from ATLAS and CMS point to a narrow range for the Higgs mass: $M_H\in[ 124, 126] {\rm GeV}$. Given this range, a case may be made for new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) because of the resultant vacuum stability…
Our current measurements of the Standard Model parameters imply that the Higgs field resides in a metastable electroweak vacuum, where the vacuum can decay to a lower ground state, with cataclysmic repercussions for our Universe. According…
We calculate the gravitational contributions to $\phi^4$ theory with general $R_\xi$ gauge-fixing choice and find that the result is gauge independent. Based on weak coupling expansion of gravity and ignoring the possible higher dimensional…