Search

In the framework of classical scale invariance, we consider quadratic gravity in the Palatini formalism and investigate the inflationary predictions of the theory. Our model corresponds to a two-field scalar-tensor theory, that involves the Higgs field and an extra scalar field stemming from a gauge $U(1)_X$ extension of the Standard Model, which contains an extra gauge boson and three right-handed neutrinos. Both scalar fields couple nonminimally to gravity and induce the Planck scale dynamically, once they develop vacuum expectation values. By means of the Gildener-Weinberg approach, we describe the inflationary dynamics in terms of a single scalar degree of freedom along the flat direction of the tree-level potential. The one-loop effective potential in the Einstein frame exhibits plateaus on both sides of the minimum and thus the model can accommodate both small and large field inflation. The inflationary predictions of the model are found to comply with the latest bounds set by the Planck collaboration for a wide range of parameters and the effect of the quadratic in curvature terms is to reduce the value of the tensor-to-scalar ratio., Comment: matches version to be published in PRD

We devise a novel mechanism and for the first time demonstrate that the Higgs model in particle physics can drive the inflation to satisfy the cosmic microwave background observations and simultaneously enhance the curvature perturbations at small scales to explain the abundance of dark matter in our universe in the form of primordial black holes. The production of primordial black holes is accompanied by the secondary gravitational waves induced by the first order Higgs fluctuations which is expected observable by space-based gravitational wave detectors. We propose possible cosmological probes of Higgs field in the future observations for primordial black holes dark matter or stochastic gravitational waves., added discussion on the running of the self-coupling, published in PRD

We study the spin-$1/2$ ferromagnetic Heisenberg-Kitaev-$\Gamma$ model in the anisotropic (Toric code) limit to reveal the nature of the quantum phase transition between the gapped $Z_2$ quantum spin liquid and a spin ordered phase (driven by Heisenberg interactions) as well as a trivial paramagnet (driven by pseudo-dipolar interactions, $\Gamma$). The transitions are obtained by a simultaneous condensation of the Ising electric and magnetic charges-- the fractionalized excitations of the $Z_2$ quantum spin liquid. Both these transitions can be continuous and are examples of deconfined quantum critical points. Crucial to our calculations are the symmetry implementations on the soft electric and magnetic modes that become critical. In particular, we find strong constraints on the structure of the critical theory arising from time reversal and lattice translation symmetries with the latter acting as an anyon permutation symmetry that endows the critical theory with a manifestly self-dual structure. We find that the transition between the quantum spin liquid and the spin-ordered phase belongs to a self-dual modified Abelian Higgs field theory while that between the spin liquid and the trivial paramagnet belongs to a self-dual $Z_2$ gauge theory. We also study the effect of an external Zeeman field to show an interesting similarity between the polarised paramagnet obtained due to the Zeeman field and the trivial paramagnet driven the pseudo-dipolar interactions. Interestingly, both the spin liquid and the spin ordered phases have easily identifiable counterparts in the isotropic limit and the present calculations may shed insights into the corresponding transitions in the material relevant isotropic limit., Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures

During inflation, scalar fields with masses less than the Hubble scale acquire vacuum expectation values (vevs) via stochastic processes driven by quantum fluctuations. For nearly massless spectator scalars transforming nontrivially under a continuous symmetry group, we demonstrate that the evolution of the vev depends on the dimensionality of the scalar field space. Fields in larger representations both attain larger vacuum expectation values and converge more rapidly to equilibrium. We present an argument demonstrating how this higher-dimensional evolution can be obtained in unitary gauge for fields transforming under local symmetries with a mass gap that is small compared to the Hubble scale. Finally, we show that accounting for the full number of degrees of freedom in the Standard Model Higgs multiplet tightens Higgs stability constraints on the inflationary scale at the percent level and has more dramatic consequences for both the vev and the energy stored in the Higgs field after inflation., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures Updated to match version accepted by PRD

We propose the $SU(3{)}_{C}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}SU(3{)}_{L}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}U(1{)}_{X}$ model arising from $SU(6)$ breaking. One family of the Standard Model (SM) fermions arises from two $\overline{6}$ representations and one 15 representation of $SU(6)$ gauge symmetry. To break the $SU(3{)}_{C}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}SU(3{)}_{L}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}U(1{)}_{X}$ gauge symmetry down to the SM, we introduce three $SU(3{)}_{L}$ triplet Higgs fields, where two of them come from the $\overline{6}$ representation while the other one from the 15 representation. We study the gauge boson masses and Higgs boson mass in detail, and find that the vacuum expectation value (VEV) of the Higgs field for $SU(3{)}_{L}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}U(1{)}_{X}$ gauge symmetry breaking is around 10 TeV. The neutrino masses and mixing can be generated via the littlest inverse seesaw mechanism. In particular, we have normal hierarchy for neutrino masses and the lightest active neutrino is massless. Also, we consider constraints from the charged lepton flavor changing decays as well. Furthermore, introducing two $SU(3{)}_{L}$ adjoint fermions, one $SU(3{)}_{C}$ adjoint scalar, and one $SU(3{)}_{L}$ triplet scalar, we can achieve gauge coupling unification within 1%. These extra particles can provide a dark matter candidate as well.

We study the dynamics of a spectator Higgs field which stochastically evolves during inflation onto near-critical trajectories on the edge of a runaway instability. We show that its fluctuations do not produce primordial black holes (PBHs) in sufficient abundance to be the dark matter, nor do they produce significant second-order gravitational waves. First we show that the Higgs produces larger fluctuations on CMB scales than on PBH scales, itself a no-go for a viable PBH scenario. Then we track the superhorizon perturbations nonlinearly through reheating using the delta N formalism to show that they are not converted to large curvature fluctuations. Our conclusions hold regardless of any fine-tuning of the Higgs field for both the Standard Model Higgs and for Higgs potentials modified to prevent unbounded runaway., Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures; matches published version

By adding the dimension-six operator for the Higgs potential (denoted $\mathcal{O}_6$) in Standard Model, we have a first-order electroweak phase transition (EWPT) whose strength is larger than unity. The cutoff parameter of the dimension-six Higgs operator ($\Lambda$) is found to be in the range 593-860 GeV with the Wilson parameter equals to unity; it is also shown that the greater the $\Lambda$, the lower the phase transition strength and the larger the Wilson parameter, the wider the domain of $\Lambda$. At zero temperature, the sphaleron energy is calculated with a smooth ansatz and an ansatz with scale-free parameters, thereby we find that smooth profiles are not more accurate than profiles with scale-free parameters. Then, using the one-loop effective Higgs potential with the inclusion of $\mathcal{O}_6$ instead of all possible dimension-six operators, we directly calculate the electroweak sphaleron energy at finite temperature with the scale-free parameters ansatz and show that the decoupling condition is satisfied during the phase transition. Moreover, we can reevaluate the upper bound of the cutoff scale inferred from the first-order phase transition. In addition, with the upper bound of the cutoff parameter (about 800-860 GeV), EWPT is a solution to the energy scale of the dimension-six operators. There is an extended conclusion that EWPT can only be solved at a large energy scale than that of SM., Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures. We would like to thank all comments (of Amine Ahriche, Jorinde van de Vis, Carlos Tamarit, Michael Spannowsky, Mikael Chala, Graham White, Jordy de Vries) for arxiv:2003.09625v1 and the comments of the reviewer for DQ12720-Phong; matches journal version (PRD)

We explore the Dirac fermionic and complex scalar dark matter in the framework of a hidden $\mathrm{U}(1)_\mathrm{X}$ gauge theory with kinetic mixing between the $\mathrm{U}(1)_\mathrm{X}$ and $\mathrm{U}(1)_\mathrm{Y}$ gauge fields. The $\mathrm{U}(1)_\mathrm{X}$ gauge symmetry is spontaneously broken due to a hidden Higgs field. The kinetic mixing provides a portal between dark matter and standard model particles. Besides, an additional Higgs portal can be realized in the complex scalar case. Dark matter interactions with nucleons are typically isospin violating, and direct detection constraints can be relieved. Although the kinetic mixing has been stringently constrained by electroweak oblique parameters, we find that there are several available parameter regions predicting an observed relic abundance through the thermal production mechanism. Moreover, these regions have not been totally explored in current direct and indirect detection experiments. Future direct detection experiments and searches for invisible Higgs decays at a Higgs factory could further investigate these regions., Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures; revisions to match the published version

The study of the properties of the observed Higgs boson is one of the main research activities in high-energy physics. Although the couplings of the Higgs to the weak gauge bosons and third-generation quark and leptons have been studied in detail, little is known about the Higgs couplings to first- and second-generation fermions. In this article, we study the charm quark–Higgs coupling in the so-called κ framework. We emphasize the existence of specific correlations between the Higgs couplings that can render the measured LHC Higgs production rates close to the Standard Model (SM) values in the presence of large deviations of the charm coupling from its SM value, κc=1. Based on this knowledge, we update the indirect bounds on κc through a fit to the precision Higgs measurements at the LHC. We also examine the limits on κc arising from the radiative decay H→J/ψ+γ, the charm-quark-associated Higgs production, charm-quark decays of the Higgs field, charge asymmetry in W±+H production, and differential production cross section distributions. Estimates for the future LHC sensitivity on κc at the high-luminosity run are provided.

We study topological aspects of a Dirac fermion coupled with a Higgs field associated with the lattice model introduced by Benalcazar et al. which shows the topological quadrupole phase. Using the index theorem, we show that the index of the Hamiltonian is just given by the winding number of the Higgs field, implying that a corner state of the lattice model belongs to the same class of the Jackiw-Rossi states localized at a vortex. We also calculate the current density of the Dirac fermion with a symmetry breaking term dependent on time, which is associated with the dipole pump proposed by Benalcazar et al. We argue that it is indeed a topological current, and the total pumped charge is given by an integer related with the index., 12 pages, 5 figures. Text revised. Figures and appendix added

We describe the phase diagram of a 2+1 dimensional SU(2) gauge theory of fluctuating incommensurate spin density waves for the hole-doped cuprates. Our primary assumption is that all low energy fermionic excitations are gauge neutral and electron-like, while the spin density wave order is fractionalized into Higgs fields transforming as adjoints of the gauge SU(2). The confining phase of the gauge theory is a conventional Fermi liquid with a large Fermi surface (and its associated $d$-wave superconductor). There is a quantum phase transition to a Higgs phase describing the `pseudogap' at lower doping. Depending upon the quartic terms in the Higgs potential, the Higgs phase exhibits one or more of charge density wave, Ising-nematic, time-reversal odd scalar spin chirality, and $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological orders. It is notable that the emergent broken symmetries in our theory of fluctuating spin density waves co-incide with those observed in diverse experiments. For the electron-doped cuprates, the spin density wave fluctuations are at wavevector $(\pi,\pi)$, and then the corresponding SU(2) gauge theory only has a crossover between the confining and Higgs regimes, with an exponentially large confinement scale deep in the Higgs regime. On the Higgs side, for both the electron- and hole-doped cases, and at scales shorter than the confinement scale (which can be infinite when $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological order is present), the electron spectral function has a `fractionalized Fermi liquid (FL*)' form with small Fermi surfaces. We also describe the deconfined quantum criticality of the Higgs transition in the limit of a large number of Higgs flavors, and perturbatively discuss its coupling to fermionic excitations., Comment: 58 pages, 16 figures

In this paper, we discuss the Higgs vacuum stability around evaporating black holes. We provide a new approach to investigate the false vacuum decay around the black hole and clearly show how vacuum fluctuations of the Higgs induce a gravitational collapse of the vacuum. Furthermore, we point out that the backreaction of the Hawking radiation can not be ignored and the gravitational vacuum decay is exponentially suppressed. However, a large number of the evaporating (or evaporated) primordial black holes threaten the existence of the Universe and we obtain a new upper bound on the evaporating PBH abundance from the vacuum stability. Finally, we show that the high-order corrections of the BSM or QG would not destabilize the Higgs potential, otherwise even a single evaporating black hole triggers a collapse of the electroweak vacuum., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure, References added, Published version in PRD

We explore the model-building and phenomenology of flavored gauge mediation models of supersymmetry breaking in which the electroweak Higgs doublets and the SU(2) messenger doublets are connected by a discrete non-Abelian symmetry. The embedding of the Higgs and messenger fields into representations of this non-Abelian Higgs-messenger symmetry results in specific relations between the Standard Model Yukawa couplings and the messenger-matter Yukawa interactions. Taking the concrete example of an S(3) Higgs-messenger symmetry, we demonstrate that while the minimal implementation of this scenario suffers from a severe mu/B_mu problem that is well-known from ordinary gauge mediation, expanding the Higgs-messenger field content allows for the possibility that mu and B_mu can be separately tuned, allowing for the possibility of phenomenologically viable models of the soft supersymmetry breaking terms. We construct toy examples of this type that are consistent with the observed 125 GeV Higgs boson mass., 35 pages, 8 figures, new version with minor typos fixed, figures updated

We propose a neutrinophilic two Higgs doublet model with hidden local $U(1)$ symmetry, where active neutrinos are Dirac type, and a fermionic DM candidate is naturally induced as a result of remnant symmetry even after the spontaneous symmetry breaking. In addition, a physical Goldstone boson is arisen as a consequence of two types of gauge singlet bosons and contributes to the DM phenomenologies as well as additional neutral gauge boson. Then we will analyze the relic density of DM within the safe range of direct detection searches, and show the allowed region of dark matter mass.

We present here a novel method of computing spectral distances in doubled Moyal plane in a noncommutative geometrical framework using Dirac eigen-spinors, while solving the Lipschitz ball condition explicitly through matrices. The standard results of longitudinal, transverse and hypotenuse distances between different pairs of pure states have been computed and Pythagorean equality between them have been re-produced. The issue of non-unital nature of Moyal plane algebra is taken care of through a sequence of projection operators constructed from Dirac eigen-spinors, which plays a crucial role throughout this paper. At the end, a toy model of "Higgs field" has been constructed by fluctuating the Dirac operator and the variation on the transverse distance has been demonstrated, through an explicit computation.

The observation of Higgs pair production at high-energy colliders can give evidence for the presence of a triple Higgs coupling. However, the actual determination of the value of this coupling is more difficult. In the context of general models for new physics, double Higgs production processes can receive contributions from many possible beyond-Standard-Model effects. This dependence must be understood if one is to make a definite statement about the deviation of the Higgs field potential from the Standard Model. In this paper, we study the extraction of the triple Higgs coupling from the process e+e-→Zhh. We show that, by combining the measurement of this process with other measurements available at a 500 GeV e+e- collider, it is possible to quote model-independent limits on the effective field theory parameter c6 that parametrizes modifications of the Higgs potential. We present precise error estimates based on the anticipated International Linear Collider physics program, studied with full simulation. Our analysis also gives new insight into the model-independent extraction of the Higgs boson coupling constants and total width from e+e- data.

We study the impact of fermionic dark matter (DM) on projected Higgs precision measurements at the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC), including the one-loop effects on the $e^+e^-\to Zh$ cross section and the Higgs boson diphoton decay, as well as the tree-level effects on the Higgs boson invisible decay. As illuminating examples, we discuss two UV-complete DM models, whose dark sector contains electroweak multiplets that interact with the Higgs boson via Yukawa couplings. The CEPC sensitivity to these models and current constraints from DM detection and collider experiments are investigated. We find that there exist some parameter regions where the Higgs measurements at the CEPC will be complementary to current DM searches., Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures; minor revisions to match the published version

We propose quartic inflation with nonminimal gravitational coupling in the context of the classically conformal ${\mathrm{U}(1)}_{X}$ extension of the standard model (SM). In this model, the ${\mathrm{U}(1)}_{X}$ gauge symmetry is radiatively broken through the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism, by which the ${\mathrm{U}(1)}_{X}$ gauge boson (${Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ boson) and the right-handed Majorana neutrinos acquire their masses. We consider their masses in the range of $\mathcal{O}(10\text{ }\mathrm{GeV})\ensuremath{-}\mathcal{O}(10\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV})$, which are accessible to high-energy collider experiments. The radiative ${\mathrm{U}(1)}_{X}$ gauge symmetry breaking also generates a negative mass squared for the SM Higgs doublet, and the electroweak symmetry breaking occurs subsequently. We identify the ${\mathrm{U}(1)}_{X}$ Higgs field with inflaton and calculate the inflationary predictions. Because of the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism, the inflaton quartic coupling during inflation, which determines the inflationary predictions, is correlated to the ${\mathrm{U}(1)}_{X}$ gauge coupling. With this correlation, we investigate complementarities between the inflationary predictions and the current constraint from the ${Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ boson resonance search at the LHC Run 2 as well as the prospect of the search for the ${Z}^{\ensuremath{'}}$ boson and the right-handed neutrinos at the future collider experiments.

The one-loop renormalization of the action for a set of Dirac fermions and a set of scalars spanning an arbitrary manifold coupled via Yukawa-like and gauge interactions is presented. The computation is performed with functional methods and in a geometric formulation that preserves at all stages the symmetries of the action. The result is then applied to Higgs effective field theory to obtain the renormalization group evolution. In the standard model limit of this effective field theory the renormalization group evolution equations collapse into a smaller linearly independent set; this allows to probe the dynamics of the scalar discovered at LHC via de-correlations in the running of couplings. The one-loop renormalization of the action for a set Dirac fermions and a set of scalars spanning an arbitrary manifold coupled via Yukawa-like and gauge interactions is presented. The computation is performed with functional methods and in a geometric formalism that preserves at all stages the symmetries of the action. The result is then applied to Higgs effective field theory to obtain the renormalization group evolution. In the Standard Model limit of this EFT the RGE equations collapse into a smaller linearly independent set; this allows to probe the dynamics of the scalar discovered at LHC via de-correlations in the running of couplings.

We study fermion condensation in the Randall-Sundrum background as a setting for composite Higgs models. We formalize the computation of the Coleman-Weinberg potential and present a simple, general formula. Using this tool, we study the competition of fermion multiplets with different boundary conditions, to find conditions for creating a little hierarchy with the Higgs field expectation value much smaller than the intrinsic Randall-Sundrum mass scale.

We consider a scenario of a composite Higgs arising from a strong sector. We assume that the lowest lying composite states are the Higgs scalar doublet and a massive vector triplet, whose dynamics below the compositeness scale are described in terms of an effective Lagrangian. Electroweak symmetry breaking takes place through a vacuum expectation value just as in the Standard Model, but with the vector resonances strongly coupled to the Higgs field. We determine the constraints on this scenario imposed by (i) the Higgs diphoton decay rate, (ii) the electroweak precision tests and (iii) searches of heavy resonances at the LHC in the final states $l^+l^-$ and $l\nu_l$ ($l=e,\mu$), $\tau^+\tau^-$, $jj$, $t\bar{t}$, $WZ$, $WW$, $WH$ and $ZH$. We find that the heavy vector resonances should have masses that are constrained to be in the range $2.1$ - $3$ TeV. On the other hand, the mixing of the heavy vectors with the Standard Model gauge bosons is constrained to be in the range $\tan\vartheta\sim 0.1 - 0.3$, which is consistent with the assumption that the Higgs couples weakly to the Standard sector, even though it couples strongly to the heavy vector resonances., Comment: 14 pages, 18 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1506.03631

If the very early Universe is dominated by the nonminimally coupled Higgs field and Starobinsky's curvature-squared term together, the potential diagram would mimic the landscape of a valley, serving as a cosmological attractor. The inflationary dynamics along this valley is studied, model parameters are constrained against observational data, and the effect of isocurvature perturbation is estimated.

We consider effective Higgs boson couplings, including both $CP$-even and $CP$-odd couplings, which affect Higgs boson pair production. Through partial wave analysis, we find that the process $gg\ensuremath{\rightarrow}hh$ is dominated by the $s$-wave component even at a 100 TeV $pp$ collider. Making use of $s$-wave kinematics, we propose a cut efficiency function to mimic the collider simulation and obtain the potential of measuring Higgs effective couplings at the 14 TeV LHC with an integrated luminosity of $3000\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and at a 100 TeV $pp$ collider. Analytical expressions of 2\ensuremath{\sigma} exclusion limits at the LHC and $5\ensuremath{\sigma}$ discovery bands at the 100 TeV machine are given.

We consider an extension of the Standard Model with the global symmetry breaking pattern SO(5)/SO(4), where the Higgs boson arises as a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson. The scalar content of the theory consists of a Standard-Model-like Higgs field and an extra real scalar field. The flavour sector of the model is extended by two right-handed neutrinos compatible with the observed light-neutrino phenomenology, and we find that the correct vacuum alignment determines the mass of the heavier neutrino eigenstate to be around 80 TeV. The new singlet-scalar state generates dynamically a Majorana mass term for the heavy neutrino states. We show how the model leads to the correct baryon asymmetry of the universe via leptogenesis in the case of two degenerate or hierarchical heavy neutrinos., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. v2 to match the published version

LHC experiments can provide a remarkable sensitivity to exotic metastable massive particles, decaying with significant displacement from the interaction point. The best sensitivity is achieved to models where the production and decay occur due to different coupling constants, and the lifetime of exotic particles determines the probability of decay within a detector. The lifetimes of such particles can be independently limited from standard cosmology, in particular the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. In this paper, we analyze the constraints on the simplest scalar model coupled through the Higgs portal, where the production occurs via $h\to SS$, and the decay is induced by the small mixing angle of the Higgs field $h$ and scalar $S$. We find that throughout the most part of the parameter space, $2 m_��< m_S < m_h/2$, the lifetimes of exotic particle has to be less than 0.1 seconds, while below $2m_��$ it could grow to about a second. The strong constraints on lifetimes are induced by the nucleonic and mesonic decays of scalars that tend to raise the $n/p$ ratio. Strong constraints on lifetimes of the minimal singlet extensions of the Higgs potential is a welcome news for the MATHUSLA proposal that seeks to detect displaced decays of exotic particles produced in the LHC collisions. We also point out how more complicated exotic sectors could evade the BBN lifetime constraints., 16 pages, 11 figures

We study effects of a potential barrier on collective modes of superfluid Bose gases in optical lattices. We assume that the barrier is created by local suppression of the hopping amplitude. When the system is in a close vicinity of the Mott transition at commensurate fillings, where an approximate particle-hole symmetry emerges, there exist bound states of Higgs amplitude mode that are localized around the barrier. By applying the Gutzwiller mean-field approximation to the Bose-Hubbard model, we analyze properties of normal modes of the system with a special focus on the Higgs bound states. We show that when the system becomes away from the Mott transition point, the Higgs bound states turn into quasi-bound states due to inevitable breaking of the particle-hole symmetry. We use a stabilization method to compute the resonance energy and line width of the quasi-bound states. We compare the results obtained by the Gutzwiller approach with those by the Ginzburg-Landau theory. We find that the Higgs bound states survive even in a parameter region far from the Mott transition, where the Ginzburg-Landau theory fails., 14 pages, 16 figures

Maximal symmetry is a novel tool for composite pseudo Goldstone boson Higgs models: it is a remnant of an enhanced global symmetry of the composite fermion sector involving a twisting with the Higgs field. Maximal symmetry has far-reaching consequences: it ensures that the Higgs potential is finite and fully calculable, and also minimizes the tuning. We present a detailed analysis of the maximally symmetric SO(5)/SO(4) model and comment on its observational consequences.

Flows of the couplings of a theory of an N-component (complex) scalar field coupled to electrodynamics is investigated using the functional renormalization group formalism in d dimensions in covariant gauges. We find charged fixed points for any number of components in d=3, in accordance with the findings of [G. Fejos and T. Hatsuda, Phys. Rev. D 93, 121701 (2016)] for N=1. It is argued that the appropriate choice of the regulator matrix is indispensible to obtain such a result. Ward-Takahashi identites are analyzed in the presence of the regulator, and their compatibility with the flow equation is investigated in detail., 14 pages, 3 figures, matches published version

We analyze the prospects of observing the light charge parity ($CP$)-even neutral Higgs bosons (${h}_{1}$) in their decays into $b\overline{b}$ quarks, in the neutral and charged current production processes $e{h}_{1}q$ and $\ensuremath{\nu}{h}_{1}q$ at the upcoming Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC), with $\sqrt{s}\ensuremath{\approx}1.296\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$. Assuming that the intermediate Higgs boson (${h}_{2}$) is Standard Model (SM)-like, we study the Higgs production within the framework of next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). We consider the constraints from dark-matter, sparticle masses, and the Higgs boson data. The signal in our analysis can be classified as three jets, with electron (missing energy) coming from the neutral (charged) current interaction. We demand that the number of $b$-tagged jets in the central rapidity region be greater or equal to two. The remaining jet is tagged in the forward regions. With this forward jet and two $b$-tagged jets in the central region, we reconstructed three jets invariant masses. Applying some lower limits on these invariant masses turns out to be an essential criterion to enhance the signal--to--background rates, with slightly different sets of kinematical selections in the two different channels. We consider almost all reducible and irreducible SM background processes. We find that the non-SM like Higgs boson, ${h}_{1}$, would be accessible in some of the NMSSM benchmark points, at approximately the $0.4\ensuremath{\sigma}$ ($2.5\ensuremath{\sigma}$) level in the $e+3\mathrm{j}$ channel up to Higgs boson masses of 75 GeV, and in the ${\overline{)E}}_{T}+3\mathrm{j}$ channel could be discovered with the $1.7\ensuremath{\sigma}$ ($2.4\ensuremath{\sigma}$) level up to Higgs boson masses of 88 GeV with $100\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ of data in a simple cut-based (with optimization) selection. With ten times more data accumulation at the end of the LHeC run, and using optimization, one can have $5\ensuremath{\sigma}$ discovery in the electron (missing energy) channel up to 85 (more than 90) GeV.

We construct a model where the smallness of the masses of first quark generations implies the near block diagonal nature of the CKM matrix and vice-versa. For this set-up, we rely on a 2HDM structure with an $S_3$ symmetry. We show that an SM-like Higgs emerges naturally from such a construction. Moreover, the ratio of two VEVs, $\tan\beta$ can be precisely determined from the requirement of the near masslessness of the up- and down-quarks. The FCNC structure that arises from our model is also very predictive., Comment: 12 pages, no figure

We complete the construction of the sphaleron $\widehat{S}$ in $SU(3)$ Yang-Mills-Higgs theory with a single Higgs triplet by solving the reduced field equations numerically. The energy of the $SU(3)$ sphaleron $\widehat{S}$ is found to be of the same order as the energy of a previously known solution, the embedded $SU(2)\times U(1)$ sphaleron $S$. In addition, we discuss $\widehat{S}$ in an extended $SU(3)$ Yang-Mills-Higgs theory with three Higgs triplets, where all eight gauge bosons get an equal mass in the vacuum. This extended $SU(3)$ Yang-Mills-Higgs theory may be considered as a toy model of quantum chromodynamics without quark fields and we conjecture that the $\widehat{S}$ gauge fields play a significant role in the nonperturbative dynamics of quantum chromodynamics (which does not have fundamental scalar fields but gets a mass scale from quantum effects)., Comment: 36 pages, 6 figures, v5: published version

We study the collider phenomenology of the extended Higgs sector of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). The region of NMSSM parameter space favored by a 125 GeV SM-like Higgs ...

Na\"ive dimensional analysis seems to suggest possible unitarity violations in the framework of the Higgs and new Higgs inflationary scenarios. These violations seem to happen around the value in which the potential energy, per given Higgs boson's vacuum expectation value, crosses the perturbative cut-off scale calculated around the electroweak vacuum. Conversely to these expectations, in this paper we show that, by using an exact analysis of the background dependent cut-off scale, and by including the contribution of the phase-space volume in the perturbative scattering amplitudes, no violation of (perturbative) unitarity might ever happen during the whole Universe evolution., Comment: v2: comment of cascades of large number of diagrams added. Clarification of why previous literature did not prove unitarity of the scalar sector. Comments on unitarity of the gauge sectors added and miscellaneous of clarifications. Accepted in PRD

We investigate the scenario where the standard model is extended with classical scale invariance, which is broken by chiral symmetry breaking and confinement in a new strongly coupled gauge theory that resembles QCD. The standard model Higgs field emerges as a result of the mixing of a scalar meson in the new strong dynamics and a massless elementary scalar field. The mass and scalar decay constant of that scalar meson, which are generated dynamically in the new gauge theory, give rise to the Higgs field mass term, automatically possessing the correct negative sign by the bosonic seesaw mechanism. Using analogy with QCD, we evaluate the dynamical scale of the new gauge theory and further make quantitative predictions for light pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons associated with the spontaneous breaking of axial symmetry along chiral symmetry breaking in the new gauge theory. A prominent consequence of the scenario is that there should be a standard model gauge singlet pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson with mass below 220 GeV, which couples to two electroweak gauge bosons through the Wess-Zumino-Witten term, whose strength is thus determined by the dynamical scale of the new gauge theory. Other pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone bosons, charged under the electroweak gauge groups, also appear. Concerning the theoretical aspects, it is shown that the scalar quartic coupling can vanish at the Planck scale with the top quark pole mass as large as 172.5 GeV, realizing the flatland scenario without being in tension with the current experimental data.

We present a novel extension of the Standard Model which fulfills the multiple-point principle without contradicting the Higgs particle mass measurement. In the model, the scalar potential has two minima where the scalar field has vacuum expectation values of 246 GeV and the Planck mass $\simeq 2.44\times 10^{18}$ GeV, the latter of which is realized by considering a classically scale invariant setup and requiring that the scalar quartic coupling and its beta function vanish at the Planck scale. The Standard Model Higgs field is a mixture of an elementary scalar and composite scalars in a new strongly-coupled gauge theory, and the strong dynamics gives rise to the negative mass for the SM Higgs field, and at the same time, causes separation of the SM Higgs quartic coupling and the quartic coupling for the elementary scalar, which leads to the vanshing of the latter quartic coupling and its beta function at the Planck scale. The model predicts new scalar particles with about 300 GeV mass possessing electroweak charges and Yukawa-type couplings with Standard Model fermions, and a new light gauge boson that couples to Standard Model fermions., 20 pages, 1 figure

We compute the net electric current generated during a first order electroweak phase transition when fermions transit from the false to the true vacuum. This current is generated by the CP-violating fermion interaction with the Higgs during the phase transition and is quantified in terms of a CP-violating phase in the bubble wall separating the symmetric from the symmetry-broken phases. We comment on the seed magnetic field that this current is able to generate and it is possible implications for magnetogenesis in the early universe during the electroweak phase transition., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D

We consider the prescription dependence of the Higgs effective potential under the presence of general nonminimal couplings. We evaluate the fermion loop correction to the effective action in a simplified Higgs-Yukawa model whose path integral measure takes simple form either in the Jordan or Einstein frame. The resultant effective action becomes identical in both cases when we properly take into account the quartically divergent term coming from the change of measure. Working in the counterterm formalism, we clarify that the difference between the prescriptions I and II comes from the counter term to cancel the logarithmic divergence. This difference can be absorbed into the choice of tree-level potential from the infinitely many possibilities, including all the higher-dimensional terms. We also present another mechanism to obtain a flat potential by freezing the running of the effective quartic coupling for large field values, using the nonminimal coupling in the gauge kinetic function., 19 pages; version to appear in Phys. Rev. D; title changed according to editor's request; paragraphs added in the end of Secs. 3.3 and 4; minor modifications

In twin Higgs models, a discrete ${\mathbb{Z}}_{2}$ symmetry between the standard model Higgs and the twin Higgs is introduced to address the hierarchy problem. In this work, we propose another discrete symmetry in twin Higgs: the $T$ parity, which maps the twin Higgs quadruplet into its mirror copy. The $T$ parity brings us a whole group of $T$-odd particles, and leads to a promising dark matter candidate. We present one realization of the $T$-parity twin Higgs scenario by implementing the $SU(2{)}_{L}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}SU(2{)}_{R}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}U(1{)}_{1}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}U(1{)}_{2}$ gauge symmetry in the left-right twin Higgs model. In this specific setup, the $T$-odd $U(1)$ gauge boson could be the dark matter candidate, and the $T$-odd particles have very distinct and interesting phenomenology.

We present a theoretical study of quantum simulations of $(1+1)$-dimensional U(1) lattice gauge-Higgs models, which contain a compact U(1) gauge field and a Higgs matter field, by using ultra-cold bosonic gases on a one-dimensional optical lattice. Starting from the extended Bose-Hubbard model with on-site and nearest-neighbor interactions, we derive the U(1) lattice gauge-Higgs model as a low-energy effective theory. The derived gauge-Higgs model exhibits nontrivial phase transitions between confinement and Higgs phases, and we discuss the relation with the phase transition in the extended Bose-Hubbard model. Finally, we study real-time dynamics of an electric flux by the Gross-Pitaevskii equations and the truncated Wigner approximation. The dynamics is governed by a bosonic analog of the Schwinger mechanism, i.e., shielding of an electric flux by a condensation of Higgs fields, which occurs differently in the Higgs and the confinement phase. These results, together with the obtained phase diagrams, shall guide experimentalists in designing quantum simulations of the gauge-Higgs models by cold gases., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures

To solve the $\mu$ problem of the MSSM, the $\mu$ from $\nu$ Supersymmetric Standard Model ($\mu\nu$SSM) introduces three singlet right-handed neutrino superfields $\hat{\nu}_i^c$, which lead to the mixing of the neutral components of the Higgs doublets with the sneutrinos, producing a relatively large CP-even neutral scalar mass matrix. In this work, we analytically diagonalize the CP-even neutral scalar mass matrix and analyze in detail how the mixing impacts the lightest Higgs boson mass. We also give an approximate expression for the lightest Higgs boson mass. Simultaneously, we consider the radiative corrections to the Higgs boson masses with effective potential methods., Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, published in Phys. Rev. D

Even if the Higgs field does not affect the evolution of the background geometry, its massive inhomogeneities induce large-scale gauge fields whose energy density depends on the slow-roll parameters, on the effective scalar mass and, last but not least, on the dimensionless coupling to the space-time curvature. Since the non-Abelian gauge modes are screened, the non-minimal coupling to gravity predominantly affects the evolution of the hypercharge and electromagnetic fields. While in the case of minimal coupling the obtained constraints are immaterial, as soon as the coupling increases beyond one fourth the produced fields become overcritical. We chart the whole parameter space of this qualitatively new set of bounds. Whenever the limits on the curvature coupling are enforced, the magnetic field may still be partially relevant for large-scale magnetogenesis and exceed $10^{-20}$ G for the benchmark scale of the protogalactic collapse., Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures; to appear in Phys. Rev. D

The abelian Higgs model is studied on the lattice with charge conjugate boundary conditions. A locally gauge invariant operator for the charged scalar field is constructed and the charged scalar particle mass is calculated in the Coulomb phase of the lattice model. Agreement is found with the mass calculated in Coulomb gauge. The gauge invariant scalar field operator is used to calculate the Higgs boson mass in the Higgs region and to show that the charged particle disappears from the spectrum in the confined regime., Comment: 7 pages, typos corrected

Motivated by a di-photon anomaly observed by ATLAS and CMS we develop an SFitter analysis for a combined electroweak-Higgs sector, and a scalar portal at the LHC. The theoretical description is based on the linear effective Lagrangian for the Higgs and gauge fields, combined with an additional singlet scalar. The key feature is the extraction of reliable information on the portal structure of the combined scalar potential. For the specific di-photon anomaly we find that the new state might well form such a Higgs portal. To obtain more conclusive results we define and test the connection of the Wilson coefficients in the Higgs and heavy scalar sectors, as suggested by a portal setup.

In the lepton-specific version of two Higgs doublet models, a discrete symmetry is used to couple one Higgs, $\Phi_2$, to quarks and the other, $\Phi_1$, to leptons. The symmetry eliminates tree level flavor changing neutral currents (FCNC). Motivated by strong constraints on such currents in the quark sector from meson-antimeson mixing, and by hints of $h \to \mu\tau$ in the lepton sector, we study a simple three Higgs doublet model in which one doublet couples to quarks and the other two to leptons. Unlike most other studies of three Higgs doublet models, we impose no flavor symmetry and just use a $Z_2$ symmetry to constrain the Yukawa couplings. We present the model and discuss the various mixing angles. Constraining the parameters to be consistent with observations of the Higgs boson at the LHC, we study the properties of the charged Higgs boson(s) in the model, focusing on the case in which the charged Higgs is above the top threshold. It is found that one can have the branching fraction of the charged Higgs into $\tau\nu_\tau$ comparable to $t\bar{b}$ decay without needing very large values for the ratios of vevs. One can also get a large branching fraction for the much more easily observable $\mu\nu_\tau$ decay., Comment: Version to be published in Physical Review D

We consider a concise dark matter (DM) scenario in the context of a non-exotic U(1) extension of the Standard Model (SM), where a new U(1)$_X$ gauge symmetry is introduced along with three generation of right-handed neutrinos (RHNs) and an SM gauge singlet Higgs field. The model is a generalization of the minimal gauged U(1)$_{B-L}$ (baryon number minus lepton number) extension of the SM, in which the extra U(1)$_X$ gauge symmetry is expressed as a linear combination of the SM U(1)$_Y$ and U(1)$_{B-L}$ gauge symmetries. We introduce a $Z_2$-parity and assign an odd-parity only for one RHN among all particles, so that this $Z_2$-odd RHN plays a role of DM. The so-called minimal seesaw mechanism is implemented in this model with only two $Z_2$-even RHNs. In this context, we investigate physics of the RHN DM, focusing on the case that this DM particle communicates with the SM particles through the U(1)$_X$ gauge boson ($Z^\prime$ boson). This "$Z^\prime$-portal RHN DM" scenario is controlled by only three free parameters: the U(1)$_X$ gauge coupling ($\alpha_X$), the $Z^\prime$ boson mass ($m_{Z^\prime}$), and the U(1)$_X$ charge of the SM Higgs doublet ($x_H$). We consider various phenomenological constraints to identify a phenomenologically viable parameter space. The most important constraints are the observed DM relic abundance and the latest LHC Run-2 results on the search for a narrow resonance with the di-lepton final state. We find that these are complementary with each other and narrow the allowed parameter region, leading to the lower mass bound of $m_{Z^\prime} \gtrsim 2.7$ TeV.

We consider scenarios of warped extra dimensions with all matter fields in the bulk and in which both the hierarchy and the flavor puzzles of the Standard Model are addressed. Inspired by the puzzling excess of diphoton events at 750 GeV reported in the early LHC Run II data (since then understood as a statistical excess), we consider here the general question as to whether the simplest extra-dimensional extension of the Standard Model Higgs sector, i.e., a five-dimensional bulk Higgs doublet, can lead to an intermediate mass resonance (between 500 GeV and 1.5 TeV) of which the first signature would be the presence of diphoton events. This surprising phenomenology can happen if the resonance is the lightest CP-odd state coming from the Higgs sector. No new matter content is required, the only new ingredient being the presence of (positive) brane localized kinetic terms associated to the five-dimensional bulk Higgs (which reduce the mass of the CP-odd states). Production and decay of this resonance can naturally give rise to observable diphoton signals, keeping dijet production under control, with very low ZZ and WW signals and with a highly reduced top pair production in an important region of parameter space. We use the 750 GeV excess as an example case scenario.

Observation of Higgs pair production is an important long term objective of the LHC physics program as it will shed light on the scalar potential of the Higgs field and the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking. While numerous studies have examined the impact of new physics on di-Higgs production, little attention has been given to the well-motivated possibility of exotic Higgs decays in this channel. Here we investigate the consequences of exotic invisible Higgs decays in di-Higgs production. We outline a search sensitive to such invisible decays in the $b\overline{b}+{\overline{)E}}_{T}$ channel. We demonstrate that probing invisible branching ratios of order 10% during the LHC's high-luminosity run will be challenging, but in resonance enhanced di-Higgs production, this final state can become crucial to establish the existence of physics beyond the Standard Model at collider energies. We also briefly discuss the outlook for other exotic Higgs decay modes and the potential to observe such exotic decays in the di-Higgs channel.

We investigate the implications of a minimal $SU(2)$ gauge symmetry extension of the standard model at the LHC. To achieve the spontaneous symmetry breaking, a heavy Higgs doublet of the $SU(2)$ is introduced. To obtain an anomaly-free model and the decays of new charged gauge bosons, we include a vectorlike quark doublet. We also employ a real scalar boson to dictate the heavy Higgs production via the gluon-gluon fusion processes. We find that the new gauge coupling and the masses of new gauge bosons can be strictly bounded by the electroweak $\ensuremath{\rho}$-parameter and dilepton resonance experiments at the LHC. We find that due to the new charged gauge boson enhancement, the cross sections for a heavy scalar boson to diphoton channel measured by ATLAS and CMS can be easily satisfied when the values of Yukawa couplings are properly taken. Furthermore, by adopting event simulation, we find that the significance of $pp\ensuremath{\rightarrow}(\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\gamma}{)}_{H}+\mathrm{jet}$, where the diphoton is from the heavy Higgs decay, can be over $4\ensuremath{\sigma}$ when the luminosity is above $60\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$.

A model is presented in which O(10 TeV) stop masses, typically required by the Higgs boson mass in supersymmetric models, do not originate from soft supersymmetry breaking terms that would drive the Higgs mass squared parameter to large negative values but rather from the mixing with vectorlike partners. Their contribution to the Higgs mass squared parameter is reduced to threshold corrections and, thus, it is one loop suppressed compared to usual scenarios. New fermion and scalar partners of the top quark with O(10 TeV) masses are predicted., 6 pages, 4 figures, formatting mistake fixed

We study a toy version of a grand-unified theory on the lattice: An $SU(3)$ gauge theory, which experiences a Brout-Englert-Higgs effect due to a single Higgs field in the fundamental representation. This yields a perturbative breaking pattern $SU(3)\ensuremath{\rightarrow}SU(2)$. We investigate the singlet vector channel, finding a nondegenerate and massive ground state. This is in contradistinction to the perturbative prediction of three massless and five massive vector states, even though the correlation functions of the gauge bosons exhibit a weak-coupling behavior, being almost tree-level-like. However, a combination of perturbation theory with the Fr\"ohlich-Morchio-Strocchi mechanism, and thus passing to gauge-invariant perturbation theory, allows one to predict the physical spectrum in this channel.