Related papers: Hubble selection of the weak scale from QCD quantu…
The nucleation of bubbles in first-order phase transitions is traditionally characterised by the critical bubble: defined as the saddle-point solution of the Euclidean action that separates collapsing from expanding field configurations.…
We explore the prospects for bounding the weak scale using the weak gravity conjecture (WGC), addressing the hierarchy problem by violating the expectations of effective field theory. Building on earlier work by Cheung and Remmen, we…
We study the inflationary evolution of a scalar field $h$ with an unstable potential for the case where the Hubble parameter $H$ during inflation is larger than the instability scale $\Lambda_I$ of the potential. Quantum fluctuations in the…
We study the quark spectrum at nonzero temperature and density near the critical point (CP) of the chiral phase transition incorporating effects of the scalar- and pseudoscalar-density fluctuations in a chiral effective model with a nonzero…
We use the 3+1 formalism of numerical relativity to investigate the robustness of Starobinsky and Higgs inflation to inhomogeneous initial conditions, in the form of either field gradient or kinetic energy density. Sub-Hubble and…
Strongly interacting matter undergoes a crossover phase transition at high temperatures $T\sim 10^{12}$ K and zero net-baryon density. A fundamental question in the theory of strong interactions, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), is whether a…
A quantum critical point (QCP), separating the non-Fermi liquid region from the Fermi liquid, exists in the phase diagram of the 2D Hubbard model [Vidhyadhiraja et. al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 206407 (2009)]. Due to the vanishing of the…
I review recent developments in determining the QCD phase diagram by means of lattice simulations. Since the invention of methods to side-step the sign problem a few years ago, a number of additional variants have been proposed, and…
Theories with ingredients like the Higgs mechanism, gravitons, and inflaton fields rejuvenate the idea that relativistic kinematics is dynamically emergent. Eternal inflation treats the Hubble constant H as depending on location.…
We present a new solution to the hierarchy problem, where the Higgs mass is at its observed electroweak value because such a patch inflates the most in the early universe. If the Higgs mass depends on a field undergoing quantum fluctuations…
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…
Using N-body simulations of flat, dark energy dominated cosmologies, we show that galaxies around simulated binary systems resembling the Local Group (LG) have low peculiar velocities, in good agreement with observational data. We have…
At quantum critical points (QCP) \cite{Pfeuty:1971,Young:1975,Hertz:1976,Chakravarty:1989,Millis:1993,Chubukov:1 994,Coleman:2005} there are quantum fluctuations on all length scales, from microscopic to macroscopic lengths, which,…
We derive lower bounds for the Higgs-curvature coupling from vacuum stability during inflation in three inflationary models: quadratic and quartic chaotic inflation, and Starobinsky-like power-law inflation. In contrast to most previous…
An extended Hubbard model on a honeycomb lattice with two orbitals per site at charge neutrality is investigated with unbiased large-scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The Fermi velocity of the Dirac fermions is renormalized as the…
We describe a scheme for finding quantum critical points based on studies of a non-equilibrium susceptibility during finite-rate quenches taking the system from one phase to another. We assume that two such quenches are performed in…
We investigate the quantum phases of hard-core bosonic atoms in an extended Hubbard model where particles interact via soft-shoulder potentials in one dimension. Using a combination of field-theoretical methods and strong-coupling…
We give a detailed presentation of a recently proposed mechanism of generating the energy scale of inflation by loop effects in quantum cosmology. We discuss the quantum origin of the early inflationary Universe from the no-boundary and…
Higgs inflation can occur if the Standard Model (SM) is a self-consistent effective field theory up to inflationary scale. This leads to a lower bound on the Higgs boson mass, $M_h \geq M_{\text{crit}}$. If $M_h$ is more than a few hundreds…
We propose a minimal model that can explain the electroweak scale, neutrino masses, Dark Matter (DM), and successful inflation all at once based on the multicritical-point principle (MPP). The model has two singlet scalar fields that…