Standard Model Meets Gravity: Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Inflation

Abstract

We propose a model for combining the Standard Model (SM) with gravity. It relies on a non-minimal coupling of the Higgs field to the Ricci scalar and on the Palatini formulation of gravity. Without introducing any new degrees of freedom in addition to those of the SM and the graviton, this scenario achieves two goals. First, it generates the electroweak symmetry breaking by a non-perturbative gravitational effect. In this way, it does not only address the hierarchy problem but opens up the possibility to calculate the Higgs mass. Second, the model incorporates inflation at energies below the onset of strong-coupling of the theory. Provided that corrections due to new physics above the scale of inflation are not unnaturally large, we can relate inflationary parameters to data from collider experiments.

11 pages, 2 figures; v2: mistake in eq. (23) corrected, appendices added, other minor improvements; v3: expanded discussion on validity of semiclassical approximation, matches published version

References in corpus (18)

• Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
• Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC
• The Standard Model Higgs boson as the inflaton
• Causality, Analyticity and an IR Obstruction to UV Completion
• Higgs inflation: consistency and generalisations
• Power-counting and the Validity of the Classical Approximation During Inflation
• Inflation with Non-Minimal Coupling: Metric vs. Palatini Formulations
• Unitarizing Higgs Inflation
• Higgs-Palatini Inflation and Unitarity
• Higgs inflation with loop corrections in the Palatini formulation
• Why should we care about the top quark Yukawa coupling?
• Violent Preheating in Inflation with Nonminimal Coupling
• Preheating in Palatini Higgs inflation
• A Unitarity-Conserving Higgs Inflation Model
• Self-Completeness of Einstein Gravity
• Quantum Effects in Palatini Higgs Inflation
• The Top Mass: Interpretation and Theoretical Uncertainties
• Dilaton-assisted generation of the Fermi scale from the Planck scale

Cited by in corpus (23)

• Dynamically induced Planck scale and inflation in the Palatini formulation
• Higgs inflation in Einstein-Cartan gravity
• Implications of Palatini gravity for inflation and beyond
• Einstein-Cartan Portal to Dark Matter
• Matter matters in Einstein-Cartan gravity
• Einstein-Cartan gravity, matter, and scale-invariant generalization
• Constant-roll in the Palatini-$R^2$ models
• Scale and Weyl Invariance in Einstein-Cartan Gravity
• Field redefinitions, perturbative unitarity and Higgs inflation
• Coupling Metric-Affine Gravity to the Standard Model and Dark Matter Fermions
• Multiple point criticality principle and Coleman-Weinberg inflation
• Extended interactions in the Palatini-$R^2$ inflation
• Exact quantum conformal symmetry, its spontaneous breakdown, and gravitational Weyl anomaly
• Anomaly-free scale symmetry and gravity
• Quintessential Inflation with Dynamical Higgs Generation as an Affine Gravity
• Observable Primordial Gravitational Waves from Non-minimally Coupled $R^2$ Palatini Modified Gravity
• Einstein-Proca theory from the Einstein-Cartan formulation
• Quintessential Inflation in Palatini Gravity
• Dynamically Generated Inflationary Lambda-CDM
• QFT without infinities and hierarchy problem
• Higgs-dilaton model revisited: can dilaton act as QCD axion?
• Palatini Higgs inflation and the refined dS conjecture
• Vacuum decay and quadratic gravity: the massive case