Related papers: Higgs vacuum metastability in $R+R^2$ gravity
Higgs inflation and $R^2$-inflation (Starobinsky model) are two limits of the same quantum model, hereafter called Starobinsky-Higgs. We analyse the two-loop action of the Higgs-like scalar $\phi$ in the presence of: 1) non-minimal coupling…
The measured values of the Higgs and top masses and of the strong gauge coupling constant point to the near-criticality of the Standard Model, where two vacua at the electroweak and Planck scales are quasi-degenerate. We argue that the…
We study the classical dynamics of a non-abelian Higgs theory coupled to gravity in an isotropic and homogeneous Universe. For non-minimal coupling, this theory leads to a model of cosmic inflation that is very attractive due to its…
To solve the hierarchy problem, extra-dimensional models must explain why the new dimensions stabilize to the right size, and the known mechanisms for doing so require bulk scalars that couple to the branes. Because of these couplings the…
The Standard Model electroweak vacuum has been found to be metastable, with the true stable vacuum given by a large, phenomenologically unacceptable vacuum expectation value $\approx M_{P}$. Moreover, it may be unstable in an inflationary…
It is likely that the Higgs potential of the Standard Model is unstable, turning negative at $\phi < \Lambda \sim 10^{10}$ GeV. Here we consider whether it is possible to have Higgs Inflation on the positive stable region of the potential…
We introduce a new method that allows for the Higgs to be the inflaton. That is, we let the Higgs be a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone (pNG) boson of a global coset symmetry $G/H$ that spontaneously breaks at an energy scale $\sim 4\pi f$ and give…
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…
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…
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…
We study $R^2$-Higgs inflation in a model with two Higgs doublets in which the Higgs sector of the Standard Model is extended by an additional Higgs doublet, thereby four scalar fields are involved in the inflationary evolutions. We first…
We construct a supersymmetric version of the Standard Model which contains a long-lived metastable vacuum. In this vacuum supersymmetry is broken and the electroweak symmetry is Higgsed, and we identify it with the physical ground state of…
Models of inflation in which the Higgs field is non-minimally coupled to gravity lead, after a recaling of the metric, to a complicated expression for the potential of the inflaton field. Nevertheless, this potential produces the desired…
We show that the mechanism of cosmological relaxation of the electroweak scale can take place independently of the inflation mechanism, thus relieving burdens from the original relaxion proposal. What eventually stops the (fast-rolling)…
We study Coleman-De Luccia tunneling of the Standard Model Higgs field during inflation in the case when the electroweak vacuum is metastable. We verify that the tunneling rate is exponentially suppressed. The main contribution to the…
In the Standard Model (SM), the Higgs mass around 125 GeV implies that the electroweak vacuum is metastable since the quartic Higgs coupling turns negative at high energies. I point out that a tiny mixing of the Higgs with a heavy singlet…
In his 2005 review, Gravity and the Thermodynamics of Horizons, Paddy suggested that a vacuum in thermal equilibrium with a bath of radiation should have a gradually diminishing energy. We work through the consequences of this scenario, and…
The discovery of Higgs mechanism within the context of spontaneous symmetry breaking has offered a new perspective on the early time cosmic inflation and also on the relationship between elementary particles and dark energy, believed to…
We investigate chaotic inflation models with two scalar fields, such that one field (the inflaton) rolls while the other is trapped in a false vacuum state. The false vacuum becomes unstable when the inflaton field falls below some critical…
The reheating of the universe after hybrid inflation proceeds through the nucleation and subsequent collision of large concentrations of energy density in the form of bubble-like structures moving at relativistic speeds. This generates a…