Related papers: The Selfish Higgs
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…
We investigate how a Higgs mechanism could be responsible for the emergence of gravity in extensions of Einstein theory. In this scenario, at high energies, symmetry restoration could "turn off" gravity, with dramatic implications for…
Motivated by natural inflation, we propose a relaxation mechanism consistent with inflationary cosmology that explains the hierarchy between the electroweak scale and Planck scale. This scenario is based on a selection mechanism that…
The Higgs potential appears to be fine-tuned, hence very sensitive to values of other scalar fields that couple to the Higgs. We show that this feature can lead to a new epoch in the early universe featuring violent dynamics coupling the…
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…
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…
In the Standard Model, the Higgs potential develops an instability at high field values when the quartic self-coupling runs negative. Large quantum fluctuations during cosmic inflation could drive the Higgs field beyond the potential…
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…
The idea that a background of invisible material pervades the whole universe is as old as the history of natural philosophy. Modern particle physics and cosmology support that idea and identify in the cosmic vacuum the ultimate source of…
Cosmological stasis is a new type of epoch in the cosmological timeline during which the cosmological abundances of different energy components -- such as vacuum energy, matter, and radiation -- remain constant despite the expansion of the…
We investigate whether selfish/Goldilocks Higgs models can be extended to accomodate vacua with both the right Higgs mass and cosmological constant. Through the introduction of multiple four-form fields coupled with the Higgs scalar boson…
A new class of solutions to the electroweak hierarchy problem is presented that does not require either weak scale dynamics or anthropics. Dynamical evolution during the early universe drives the Higgs mass to a value much smaller than the…
Why the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ observed today is so much smaller than the Planck scale or why the universe is accelerating at present? This is so-called the cosmological constant fine-tuning problem. In this paper, we find that…
We assume the validity of the Standard Model up to an arbitrary high-energy scale and discuss what information on the early stages of the Universe can be extracted from a measurement of the Higgs mass. For Mh < 130 GeV, the Higgs potential…
The recent measurement of the Higgs boson mass implies a relatively slow rise of the Standard Model Higgs potential at large scales, and a possible second minimum at even larger scales. Consequently, the Higgs field may develop a large…
An alternative for the Higgs mechanism is proposed. It predicts the appearance in the broken phase of a scalar background field which may be interpreted as describing an almost uniform (i.e., homogeneous and isotropic) superfluid condensate…
A version of the Standard Model is considered, where the electroweak symmetry breaking is provided by cosmological initial data given for the zeroth Fourier harmonic of the Higgs field $<\phi>$. The initial data symmetry breaking mechanism…
We discuss the vacuum energy density term resulting from the spontaneous breakdown of the electroweak gauge symmetry, in the Higgs Mechanism. We alternatively expand the scalar field at one of the degenerate states that lie outside the…
Current Higgs boson and top quark data favor metastability of our vacuum which raises questions as to why the Universe has chosen an energetically disfavored state and remained there during inflation. In this Letter, we point out that these…
We describe a composite Higgs scenario in which a cosmological relaxation mechanism naturally gives rise to a hierarchy between the weak scale and the scale of spontaneous global symmetry breaking. This is achieved through the scanning of…