The fate of the Higgs vacuum

Burda, P.; Gregory, R.; Moss, I.

Abstract

We have recently suggested that tiny black holes can act as nucleation seeds for the decay of the metastable Higgs vacuum. Previous results applied only to the nucleation of thin-wall bubbles, and covered a very small region of parameter space. This paper considers bubbles of arbitrary profile and reaches the same conclusion: black holes seed rapid vacuum decay. Seeded and unseeded nucleation rates are compared, and the gravitational back reaction of the bubbles is taken into account. The evolution of the bubble interior is described for the unseeded nucleation. Results are presented for the renormalisation group improved Standard Model Higgs potential, and a simple effective model representing new physics.

Citation

Burda, P., Gregory, R., & Moss, I. (2016). The fate of the Higgs vacuum. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2016(6), Article 25. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep06%282016%29025

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 17, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jun 6, 2016
• Publication Date: Jun 6, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 20, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 22, 2016
• Journal: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Print ISSN: 1126-6708
• Electronic ISSN: 1029-8479
• Publisher: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2016
• Issue: 6
• Article Number: 25
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep06%282016%29025
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1379344