Inflating to the Weak Scale

Michael Geller*, Yonit Hochberg, Eric Kuflik

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present a new solution to the hierarchy problem, where the Higgs boson mass is at its observed electroweak value because such a patch inflates the most in the early Universe. If the Higgs boson mass depends on a field undergoing quantum fluctuations during inflation, then inflation will fill the Universe with the Higgs boson mass that corresponds to the largest vacuum energy. The hierarchy problem is solved if the maximum vacuum energy occurs for the observed Higgs boson mass. We demonstrate this notion with a proof-of-principle model containing an axion, a modulus field and the Higgs boson, and show that inflation can be responsible for the weak scale.

Original languageEnglish
Article number191802
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume122
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - 17 May 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 authors.

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