The Rise and Fall of the Standard-Model Higgs: Electroweak Vacuum Stability during Kination

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Autori principali: Laverda, Giorgio, Rubio, Javier
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Laverda, Giorgio
Rubio, Javier
author_facet Laverda, Giorgio
Rubio, Javier
contents In this paper we investigate the vacuum stability of the non-minimally coupled Standard-Model Higgs during a phase of kinetic domination following the end of inflation. The non-minimal coupling to curvature stabilises the Higgs fluctuations during inflation while driving them towards the instability scale during kination, when they can classically overcome the potential barrier separating the false electroweak vacuum from the true one at super-Planckian field values. Avoiding the instability of the Standard-Model vacuum sets an upper bound on the inflationary scale that depends both on the strength of the non-minimal interaction and on the top quark Yukawa coupling. Classical vacuum stability is guaranteed if the gravitationally-produced energy density is smaller than the height of barrier in the effective potential. Interestingly enough, thanks to the explosive particle production in the tachyonic phase, the Higgs itself can be also appointed to the role of reheaton field responsible for the onset of the hot Big Bang era, setting an additional lower bound on the inflationary scale $\mathcal{H}_{\rm inf} \gtrsim 10^{5.5} \text{ GeV}$. Overall, these constraints favour lower masses for the top quark, in agreement with the current measurements of the top quark pole mass. We perform our analysis semi-analytically in terms of the one-loop and three-loop running of the Standard-Model Higgs self-coupling and make use of lattice-based parametric formulas for studying the (re)heating phase derived in arXiv:2307.03774. For a specific choice of $m_t=171.3 \text{ GeV}$ we perform also an extensive numerical scanning of the parameter space via classical lattice simulations, identifying stable/unstable regions and supporting the previous analytical arguments. For this fiducial value, the heating of the Universe is achieved at temperatures in the range $10^{-2} - 10^9 \text{ GeV}$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_06000
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Rise and Fall of the Standard-Model Higgs: Electroweak Vacuum Stability during Kination
Laverda, Giorgio
Rubio, Javier
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
In this paper we investigate the vacuum stability of the non-minimally coupled Standard-Model Higgs during a phase of kinetic domination following the end of inflation. The non-minimal coupling to curvature stabilises the Higgs fluctuations during inflation while driving them towards the instability scale during kination, when they can classically overcome the potential barrier separating the false electroweak vacuum from the true one at super-Planckian field values. Avoiding the instability of the Standard-Model vacuum sets an upper bound on the inflationary scale that depends both on the strength of the non-minimal interaction and on the top quark Yukawa coupling. Classical vacuum stability is guaranteed if the gravitationally-produced energy density is smaller than the height of barrier in the effective potential. Interestingly enough, thanks to the explosive particle production in the tachyonic phase, the Higgs itself can be also appointed to the role of reheaton field responsible for the onset of the hot Big Bang era, setting an additional lower bound on the inflationary scale $\mathcal{H}_{\rm inf} \gtrsim 10^{5.5} \text{ GeV}$. Overall, these constraints favour lower masses for the top quark, in agreement with the current measurements of the top quark pole mass. We perform our analysis semi-analytically in terms of the one-loop and three-loop running of the Standard-Model Higgs self-coupling and make use of lattice-based parametric formulas for studying the (re)heating phase derived in arXiv:2307.03774. For a specific choice of $m_t=171.3 \text{ GeV}$ we perform also an extensive numerical scanning of the parameter space via classical lattice simulations, identifying stable/unstable regions and supporting the previous analytical arguments. For this fiducial value, the heating of the Universe is achieved at temperatures in the range $10^{-2} - 10^9 \text{ GeV}$.
title The Rise and Fall of the Standard-Model Higgs: Electroweak Vacuum Stability during Kination
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.06000