Related papers: Naturalness: A Snowmass White Paper
These notes present a brief introduction to `naturalness' problems in cosmology, and to the Cosmological Constant Problem in particular. The main focus is the `old' cosmological constant problem, though the more recent variants are also…
For decades, the unnaturalness of the weak scale has been the dominant problem motivating new particle physics, and weak-scale supersymmetry has been the dominant proposed solution. This paradigm is now being challenged by a wealth of…
We present a cosmological solution to the electroweak hierarchy problem. After discussing general features of cosmological approaches to naturalness, we extend the Standard Model with two light scalars very weakly coupled to the Higgs and…
We present a new solution to the electroweak hierarchy problem. We introduce $N$ copies of the Standard Model with varying values of the Higgs mass parameter. This generically yields a sector whose weak scale is parametrically removed from…
With the discovery of a particle that seems rather consistent with the minimal Standard Model Higgs boson, attention turns to questions of naturalness, fine-tuning, and what they imply for physics beyond the Standard Model and its discovery…
Naturalness has for many years been a guiding principle in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model, particularly for understanding the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking. However, the discovery of the Higgs particle at 125…
Solutions to the electroweak hierarchy problem typically introduce a new symmetry to stabilize the quadratic ultraviolet sensitivity in the self-energy of the Higgs boson. The new symmetry is either broken softly or collectively, as for…
$N$-naturalness is a novel solution to the electroweak hierarchy problem which posits $N$ copies of the Standard Model with varying Higgs mass-squared parameters. Reheating proceeds through a "reheaton" particle that deposits most of its…
Quantum gravity places important consistency conditions on low-energy effective field theory, such as the absence of global symmetries. These may have important consequences in the search for particle physics beyond the Standard Model. We…
We review the recent developments on axion physics. Some new comments on the strong CP problem, the axion mass, and the simple energy loss mechanism of white dwarfs and related issues are included.
With each passing decade, we gain new appreciation for the dynamic, connected, and often violent nature of the Universe. This reality necessarily places the study of high-energy processes at the very heart of modern astrophysics. This White…
High-energy physics is primarily concerned with uncovering the laws and principles that govern nature at the fundamental level. Research in this field usually relies on probing the boundaries of established physics, an undertaking typically…
We explore the landscape of technical naturalness for nonrelativistic systems, finding surprises which challenge and enrich our relativistic intuition already in the simplest case of a single scalar field. While the immediate applications…
The naturalness criterion applied to the cosmological constant implies a new-physics threshold at 10^-3 eV. Either the naturalness criterion fails, or this threshold does not influence particle dynamics at higher energies. It has been…
A framework is suggested in which the energy integrals of the Friedmann cosmology are identified as genuine time-independent physical characteristics for both vacuum and non-vacuum forms of cosmic energy. The integrals are found to be…
The Principle of Naturalness of small parameters of a theory is reviewed. While quantum field theories constructed from gauge fields and fermions only are natural, those containing elementary scalar fields are not. In particular the Higgs…
Quantum theory, general relativity, the standard model of particle physics, and the $\Lambda$CDM model of cosmology have all been spectacularly successful within their respective regimes of applicability, but many central problems remain…
We present a supersymmetric model of electroweak symmetry-breaking exhibiting improved naturalness, wherein the stop mass can be pushed beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider without unnatural fine tuning. This implies that…
I discuss how anomalies affect classical symmetries and how, in turn, the non-trivial nature of the gauge theory vacuum makes these quantum corrections troublesome. Although no solution seems in sight for the cosmological constant problem,…
We propose a solution of the naturalness problem in the context of the multiverse wavefunction without the anthropic argument. If we include microscopic wormhole configurations in the path integral, the wave function becomes a superposition…