Cosmological implications of electroweak vacuum instability
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The Standard Model of particle physics predicts, for the measured values of the Higgs boson and top quark masses, that the current vacuum state of the Universe is not the true ground state. Ultimately, after a very long time, the Higgs field will tunnel in to the true negative-energy vacuum, creating a bubble inside which space collapses into a singularity. The obvious fact that this did not happen in the early Universe places constraints on theories of cosmology and particle physics. This project will compute in a robust way the probability of vacuum decay at different stages in the early Universe, including inflation, preheating, and the hot radiation-dominated phase. The computation will include the whole particle spectrum of the Standard Model and effects of the spacetime curvature. The results will be used to constrain the Standard Model of particle physics, especially the value of the non-minimal coupling of the Higgs field to the spacetime curvature, as well as extensions of the Standard Model, and different inflationary scenarios.
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST/S505432/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/09/2022 | |||
| 2119395 | Studentship | ST/S505432/1 | 01/10/2018 | 30/06/2022 | Andreas MANTZIRIS |
| Description | Conference talk at the fifth Colombian Meeting on High Energy Physics (5th ComHEP) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk titled "Cosmological implications of electroweak vacuum instability: constraints on the Higgs curvature coupling from inflation" based on the paper arXiv:2011.03763, where our findings were presented, which sparked some discussion via emails about possible extensions of this work and possible collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://indico.cern.ch/event/897772/contributions/4115213/ |
| Description | Short talk at the 49th British Universities Summer School in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics (BUSSTEPP 2019, University of Glasgow) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Short talk titled "Cosmological implications of electroweak vacuum instability" based on preliminary work, which sparked some discussion about the details of our approach. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/view/busstepp2019/programme-venue/student-talks |
| Description | Short talk at the 50th British Universities Summer School in Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics (BUSSTEPP@50, Queen Mary University of London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Short talk titled "Vacuum decay constraints on the Higgs curvature coupling from inflation" based on the paper arXiv:2011.03763, where our findings were presented, which sparked some discussion about the topic. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://sites.google.com/view/busstepp2020/student-talks |
| Description | Talk at Crick-Imperial PhD Symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk titled "Cosmological implications of electroweak vacuum instability: constraints on the Higgs curvature coupling from inflation" based on the paper arXiv:2011.03763, where our findings were presented in a more simplified manner for the broader audience, which sparked some discussion afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/crickimperial-postgraduate-symposium-tickets-137604756531 |
| Description | Talk at UK-QFT IX |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk titled "Cosmological implications of EW vacuum instability: constraints on the Higgs-curvature coupling from inflation" based on the paper arXiv:2011.03763, where our findings were presented. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://indico.cern.ch/event/976514/registrations/66592/ |
| Description | Talk at YTF 20 (Centre for Particle Theory, Durham University) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Talk titled "Cosmological implications of electroweak vacuum instability: constraints on the Higgs curvature coupling from inflation" based on the paper arXiv:2011.03763, where our findings were presented, which sparked some discussion afterwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://conference.ippp.dur.ac.uk/event/937/contributions/5050/ |