Related papers: Asymptotic Scale Invariance and its Consequences
We show that scalar unparticles coupled to the Standard Model Higgs at the renormalizable level can have a dramatic impact in the breaking of the electroweak symmetry already at tree level. In particular one can get the proper electroweak…
We apply a general formalism for the improved effective potential with several mass scales to compute the scale M of new physics which is needed to stabilize the Standard Model potential in the presence of a light Higgs. We find, by…
Within the Standard Model, the current Higgs and top quark data favor metastability of the electroweak vacuum, although the uncertainties are still significant. The true vacuum is many orders of magnitude deeper than ours and the barrier…
We study the dynamics of the standard model Higgs field in the inflationary cosmology. Since metastability of our vacuum is indicated by the current experimental data of the Higgs boson and top quark, inflation models with a large Hubble…
We consider classically scale-invariant theories with non-minimally coupled scalar fields, where the Planck mass and the hierarchy of physical scales are dynamically generated. The classical theories possess a fixed point, where scale…
We consider the possibility that the gauge hierarchy is a byproduct of the metastability of the electroweak vacuum, i.e., that whatever mechanism is responsible for the latter also sets the running Higgs mass to a value smaller than its…
We review the gauge hierarchy problem in the standard model. We discuss the meaning of the quadratic divergence in terms of the Wilsonian renormalization group. Classical scale symmetry, which prohibits dimensionful parameters in the bare…
We study the implications of scale invariance in four-dimensional quantum field theories. Imposing unitarity, we find that infinitely many matrix elements vanish in a suitable kinematical configuration. This vanishing is a nontrivial…
Scale invariance usually occurs in extended systems where correlation functions decay algebraically in space and/or time. Here we introduce a new type of scale invariance, occurring in the distribution functions of physical observables. At…
The fundamental laws of physics are required to be invariant under local spatial scale change. In 3-dimensional space, this leads to a variation in Planck constant \hbar and speed of light c. They vary as \hbar ~ a^(1/2) and c ~ a^(-1/2), a…
Cosmological implications of Higgs field fluctuations during inflation are considered. This study is based on the Standard Model and the standard quadratic model of chaotic inflation where the Higgs field is minimally coupled to gravity and…
We perform a systematic analysis of an extension of the Standard Model that includes a complex singlet scalar field and is scale invariant at the tree level. We call such a model the Minimal Scale Invariant extension of the Standard Model…
We derive the decay rate of an unstable phase of a quantum field theory in the presence of an impurity in the thin-wall approximation. This derivation is based on the how the impurity changes the (flat spacetime) geometry relative to case…
We consider a classically scale-invariant extension of the standard model in which a dark, non-Abelian gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken via the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism. Higgs portal couplings between the dark and standard model…
We study the stability of the electroweak vacuum in low-scale inflation models whose Hubble parameter is much smaller than the instability scale of the Higgs potential. In general, couplings between the inflaton and Higgs are present, and…
During inflation, scalar fields with masses less than the Hubble scale acquire vacuum expectation values (vevs) via stochastic processes driven by quantum fluctuations. For nearly massless spectator scalars transforming nontrivially under a…
The measured values of the Higgs and top quark masses imply that the Standard Model potential is very likely to be unstable at large Higgs values. This is particularly problematic during inflation, which sources large perturbations of the…
The possibility that new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) appears only at the Planck scale $M_P$ is often considered. However, it is usually argued that new physics interactions at $M_P$ do not affect the SM stability phase diagram,…
Using a physical renormalisation scheme we derive mass-dependent renormalisation group equations for the running of the Higgs quartic coupling within the Standard Model. Subsequently, we accurately take into account weak scale thresholds,…
We argue that the hierarchy problem of the standard model of particle physics can be solved by adding a state-dependent term to the Higgs sector. We present an example of a scalar field with a Higgs-like potential with an additional term…