Mass Hierarchy and Vacuum Energy
arXiv:1811.12390
Abstract
A hierarchically small weak scale does not generally coincide with enhanced symmetry, but it may still be exceptional with respect to vacuum energy. By analyzing the classical vacuum energy as a function of parameters such as the Higgs mass, we show how near-criticality, i.e. fine-tuning, corresponds universally to boundaries where the vacuum energy transitions from exactly flat to concave down. In the presence of quantum corrections, these boundary regions can easily be perturbed to become maxima of the vacuum energy. After introducing a dynamical scalar field which scans the Higgs sector parameters, we propose several possible mechanisms by which this field could be localized to the maximum. One possibility is that the potential has many vacua, with those near the maximum vacuum energy expanding faster during a long period of cosmic inflation and hence dominating the volume of the Universe. Alternately, we describe scenarios in which vacua near the maximum could be anthropically favored, due to selection of the late-time cosmological constant or dark matter density. Independent of these specific approaches, the physical value of the weak scale in our proposal is generated naturally and dynamically from loops of heavy states coupled to the Higgs. These states are predicted to be a loop factor heavier than in models without this mechanism, avoiding tension with experimental null results.
arXiv comment45 pages, 10 figures. v2: Additional discussion of inflationary cosmology scenarios, added references
References in corpus (33)
- On the Geometry of the String Landscape and the Swampland
- Monodromy in the CMB: Gravity Waves and String Inflation
- Gravity Waves and Linear Inflation from Axion Monodromy
- Equilibrium State of a Massless Self-Interacting Scalar Field in the De Sitter Background
- Cosmological Relaxation of the Electroweak Scale
- Cosmology and Astrophysics of Minimal Dark Matter
- Natural SUSY Endures
- Oscillations in the CMB from Axion Monodromy Inflation
- Searching for dilaton dark matter with atomic clocks
- A Clockwork Axion
- Minimal Extension of the Standard Model Scalar Sector
- The anthropic principle and the mass scale of the Standard Model
- Dark Matter Direct Detection with Accelerometers
- Searching for dark matter and variation of fundamental constants with laser and maser interferometry
- Two-loop effective potential for a general renormalizable theory and softly broken supersymmetry
- Natural inflation with multiple sub-Planckian axions
- Violation of the equivalence principle from light scalar dark matter
- The Stochastic Axion Scenario
- Search for light scalar dark matter with atomic gravitational wave detectors
- Supersymmetry without a Light Higgs Boson
- Sound of Dark Matter: Searching for Light Scalars with Resonant-Mass Detectors
- Multi-lepton Signatures of a Hidden Sector in Rare B Decays
- Weak Gravity Strongly Constrains Large-Field Axion Inflation
- Higgs Dynamics during Inflation
- Sub-eV scalar dark matter through the super-renormalizable Higgs portal
- The Weak Gravity Conjecture and Effective Field Theory
- Predictability crisis in inflationary cosmology and its resolution
- Sensitivity of atom interferometry to ultralight scalar field dark matter
- Axion monodromy in a model of holographic gluodynamics
- Spacetime Dynamics of a Higgs Vacuum Instability During Inflation
- A small weak scale from a small cosmological constant
- Dark Matter and The Anthropic Principle
- Universality of the Volume Bound in Slow-Roll Eternal Inflation
Cited by in corpus (9)
- Self-Organised Localisation
- Crunching Dilaton, Hidden Naturalness
- Sliding Naturalness
- Relaxing the Higgs mass and its vacuum energy by living at the top of the potential
- Sliding Naturalness: Cosmological Selection of the Weak Scale
- Paper-boat relaxion
- The Muon Smasher's Guide
- Cosmological constant: relaxation vs multiverse
- Lectures on Naturalness, String Landscape and Multiverse