The effective Higgs potential and vacuum decay in Starobinsky inflation
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Mantziris, Andreas
Markkanen, Tommi
Rajantie, Arttu
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Based on the current experimental data, the Standard Model predicts that the current vacuum state of the Universe is metastable, leading to a non-zero rate of vacuum decay through nucleation of bubbles of true vacuum. Our existence implies that there cannot have been any such bubble nucleation events anywhere in our whole past lightcone. We consider a minimal scenario of the Standard Model together with Starobinsky inflation, using three-loop renormalization group improved Higgs effective potential with one-loop curvature corrections. We show that the survival of the vacuum state through inflation places a lower bound ξ ≳ 0.1 on the non-minimal Higgs curvature coupling, the last unknown parameter of the Standard Model. This bound is significantly stronger than in single field inflation models with no Higgs-inflaton coupling. It is also sensitive to the details of the dynamics at the end of inflation, and therefore it can be improved with a more detailed study of that period.
Date Issued
2022-10-01
Date Acceptance
2022-09-03
Citation
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2022, 2022 (10)
ISSN
1475-7516
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume
2022
Issue
10
Copyright Statement
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of Sissa Medialab. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
License URL
Identifier
http://arxiv.org/abs/2207.00696v1
Subjects
Astronomy & Astrophysics
FIELD
inflation
modified gravity
particle physics-cosmology connection
Physical Sciences
Physics
Physics, Particles & Fields
quantum field theory on curved space
SCALARON
Science & Technology
STABILITY
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
073
Date Publish Online
2022-10-24