Searches for other vacua. Part II. A new Higgstory at the cosmological collider
Abstract The detection of an oscillating pattern in the bispectrum of density perturbations could suggest the existence of a high-energy second minimum in the Higgs potential. If the Higgs field resided in this new minimum during inflation and was brought back to the electroweak vacuum by thermal co...
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| Format: | Article |
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SpringerOpen
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of High Energy Physics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2020)105 |
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| author | Anson Hook Junwu Huang Davide Racco |
| author_facet | Anson Hook Junwu Huang Davide Racco |
| author_sort | Anson Hook |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The detection of an oscillating pattern in the bispectrum of density perturbations could suggest the existence of a high-energy second minimum in the Higgs potential. If the Higgs field resided in this new minimum during inflation and was brought back to the electroweak vacuum by thermal corrections during reheating, the coupling of Standard Model particles to the inflaton would leave its imprint on the bispectrum. We focus on the fermions, whose dispersion relation can be modified by the coupling to the inflaton, leading to an enhanced particle production during inflation even if their mass during inflation is larger than the Hubble scale. This results in a large non-analytic contribution to non-Gaussianities, with an amplitude fNL as large as 100 in the squeezed limit, potentially detectable in future 21-cm surveys. Measuring the contributions from two fermions would allow us to compute the ratio of their masses, and to ascribe the origin of the signal to a new Higgs minimum. Such a discovery would be a tremendous step towards understanding the vacuum instability of the Higgs potential, and could have fascinating implications for anthropic considerations. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9d336e61f597407ab50b6f090e5fe41c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1029-8479 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | SpringerOpen |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of High Energy Physics |
| spelling | doaj-art-9d336e61f597407ab50b6f090e5fe41c2025-02-09T12:06:31ZengSpringerOpenJournal of High Energy Physics1029-84792020-01-012020113710.1007/JHEP01(2020)105Searches for other vacua. Part II. A new Higgstory at the cosmological colliderAnson Hook0Junwu Huang1Davide Racco2Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics, University of MarylandPerimeter Institute for Theoretical PhysicsPerimeter Institute for Theoretical PhysicsAbstract The detection of an oscillating pattern in the bispectrum of density perturbations could suggest the existence of a high-energy second minimum in the Higgs potential. If the Higgs field resided in this new minimum during inflation and was brought back to the electroweak vacuum by thermal corrections during reheating, the coupling of Standard Model particles to the inflaton would leave its imprint on the bispectrum. We focus on the fermions, whose dispersion relation can be modified by the coupling to the inflaton, leading to an enhanced particle production during inflation even if their mass during inflation is larger than the Hubble scale. This results in a large non-analytic contribution to non-Gaussianities, with an amplitude fNL as large as 100 in the squeezed limit, potentially detectable in future 21-cm surveys. Measuring the contributions from two fermions would allow us to compute the ratio of their masses, and to ascribe the origin of the signal to a new Higgs minimum. Such a discovery would be a tremendous step towards understanding the vacuum instability of the Higgs potential, and could have fascinating implications for anthropic considerations.https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2020)105Beyond Standard ModelCosmology of Theories beyond the SMEffective Field TheoriesHiggs Physics |
| spellingShingle | Anson Hook Junwu Huang Davide Racco Searches for other vacua. Part II. A new Higgstory at the cosmological collider Journal of High Energy Physics Beyond Standard Model Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM Effective Field Theories Higgs Physics |
| title | Searches for other vacua. Part II. A new Higgstory at the cosmological collider |
| title_full | Searches for other vacua. Part II. A new Higgstory at the cosmological collider |
| title_fullStr | Searches for other vacua. Part II. A new Higgstory at the cosmological collider |
| title_full_unstemmed | Searches for other vacua. Part II. A new Higgstory at the cosmological collider |
| title_short | Searches for other vacua. Part II. A new Higgstory at the cosmological collider |
| title_sort | searches for other vacua part ii a new higgstory at the cosmological collider |
| topic | Beyond Standard Model Cosmology of Theories beyond the SM Effective Field Theories Higgs Physics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2020)105 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ansonhook searchesforothervacuapartiianewhiggstoryatthecosmologicalcollider AT junwuhuang searchesforothervacuapartiianewhiggstoryatthecosmologicalcollider AT davideracco searchesforothervacuapartiianewhiggstoryatthecosmologicalcollider |