Electroweak vacuum instability and renormalized Higgs field vacuum fluctuations in the inflationary universe

Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2017/08/011· OSTI ID:22676069

Kohri, Kazunori ^[1]; Matsui, Hiroki ^[2]

---

1. Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies, KEK, 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba 305-0801 (Japan)
2. The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI), 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba 305-0801 (Japan)

In this work, we investigated the electroweak vacuum instability during or after inflation. In the inflationary Universe, i.e., de Sitter space, the vacuum field fluctuations < δ φ {sup 2} > enlarge in proportion to the Hubble scale H {sup 2}. Therefore, the large inflationary vacuum fluctuations of the Higgs field < δ φ {sup 2} > are potentially catastrophic to trigger the vacuum transition to the negative-energy Planck-scale vacuum state and cause an immediate collapse of the Universe. However, the vacuum field fluctuations < δ φ {sup 2} >, i.e., the vacuum expectation values have an ultraviolet divergence, and therefore a renormalization is necessary to estimate the physical effects of the vacuum transition. Thus, in this paper, we revisit the electroweak vacuum instability from the perspective of quantum field theory (QFT) in curved space-time, and discuss the dynamical behavior of the homogeneous Higgs field φ determined by the effective potential V {sub eff}( φ ) in curved space-time and the renormalized vacuum fluctuations < δ φ {sup 2} >{sub ren} via adiabatic regularization and point-splitting regularization. We simply suppose that the Higgs field only couples the gravity via the non-minimal Higgs-gravity coupling ξ(μ). In this scenario, the electroweak vacuum stability is inevitably threatened by the dynamical behavior of the homogeneous Higgs field φ, or the formations of AdS domains or bubbles unless the Hubble scale is small enough H < Λ {sub I} .

• OSTI ID: 22676069
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2017, Issue 08; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANTI DE SITTER SPACE
COUPLING
DE SITTER SPACE
EXPECTATION VALUE
FLUCTUATIONS
GRAVITATION
HIGGS BOSONS
HIGGS MODEL
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
INSTABILITY
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
RENORMALIZATION
SPACE-TIME
ULTRAVIOLET DIVERGENCES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
UNIVERSE
VACUUM STATES
WEINBERG-SALAM GAUGE MODEL