Related papers: Naturalness: A Snowmass White Paper
The idea of naturalness, as originally conceived, refers only to the finite renormalization of the Higgs boson mass induced by the introduction of heavier states. In this respect, naturalness is still a powerful heuristic principle in model…
Although the cosmic concordance cosmology is quite successful in fitting data, fine tuning and coincidence problems apparently weaken it. We review several possibilities to ease its problems, by considering various kinds of dynamical Dark…
I review the problem of dark energy focusing on the cosmological constant as the candidate and discuss its implications for the nature of gravity. Part 1 briefly overviews the currently popular `concordance cosmology' and summarises the…
There are now two cosmological constant problems: (i) why the vacuum energy is so small and (ii) why it comes to dominate at about the epoch of galaxy formation. Anthropic selection appears to be the only approach that can naturally resolve…
One of the most enduring and unresolved challenges in modern theoretical and observational cosmology is the fine-tuning and coincidence problems associated with the cosmological constant. Rather than attempting to reconcile these issues…
Many models of electroweak symmetry-breaking with an extended Higgs sector exhibit improved naturalness, wherein the new physics scale, at which quadratic divergences of Higgs mass parameters due to top quark loops are cut off, can be…
This review provides an elementary discussion of electroweak symmetry breaking in the minimal and the next-to-minimal supersymmetric models with the focus on the fine-tuning problem -- the tension between natural electroweak symmetry…
We discuss how entropy bounds, which are not respected in the standard cosmology, constrain the parameters of a previously suggested cosmology with a finite total mass. In that alternative cosmology the matter density was postulated to be a…
Following a short discussion of some unresolved issues in the standard model of cosmology (considered to be a generic LCDM model with flat geometry and an early period of inflation), an update on the current state of research regarding the…
The problem of the physical nature and the cosmological constant genesis is discussed. This problem can't be solved in terms of the current quantum field theory which operates with Higgs and nonperturbative vacuum condensates and takes into…
I reflect on some of the basic aspects of present day Beyond the Standard Model particle physics, focusing mostly on the issues of naturalness, in particular on the so-called hierarchy problem. To all of us, physics as natural science…
The flatness and cosmological constant problems are solved with varying speed of light c, gravitational coupling strength G and cosmological parameter Lambda, by explicitly assuming energy conservation of observed matter. The present…
Solutions to strong CP based on chiral structure have been subject to the most careful scrutiny and critique. Basic theoretical issues include hierarchy and fine-tuning problems, quality and genericity of symmetries, and compatibility with…
We present a novel framework to solve simultaneously the electroweak hierarchy problem and the strong-CP problem. A small but finite Higgs vacuum expectation value and a small $\theta$-angle are selected after the QCD phase transition,…
Three of the big puzzles of theoretical physics are the following: (i) There is apparently no time evolution in the dynamics of quantum general relativity, because the allowed quantum states must obey the Hamiltonian constraint. (ii) During…
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…
There is a natural solution to the strong CP problem in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model if it arises from a parity symmetric theory which is spontaneously broken to MSSM at Planck, GUT or intermediate scales. The strong CP phase…
We point out that the long-standing strong CP problem may be resolved by an anthropic argument. The key ideas are: (i) to allow explicit breaking(s) of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry which reduces the strong CP problem to the cosmological…
Recently Graham, Kaplan and Rajendran [1] proposed cosmological relaxation as a mechanism for generating a hierarchically small Higgs vacuum expectation value. Inspired by this we collect some thoughts on steps towards a solution to the…
In these lectures I examine some of the principal issues in cosmology from a particle physics point of view. I begin with nucleosynthesis and show how the primordial abundance of the light elements can help fix the number of (light)…