Andrew J. Long

125 GeV Higgs boson and electroweak phase transition model classes

Recently, the ATLAS and CMS detectors have discovered a bosonic particle which, to a reasonable degree of statistical uncertainty, fits the profile of the Standard Model Higgs. One obvious implication is that models which predict a significant departure from Standard Model phenomenology, such as large exotic (e.g., invisible) Higgs decay or mixing with a hidden sector scalar, are already ruled out. This observation threatens the viability of electroweak baryogenesis, which favors, for example, a lighter Higgs and a Higgs coupled to or mixed with light scalars. To assess the broad impact of these constraints, we propose a scheme for classifying models of the electroweak phase transition and impose constraints on a class-by-class basis. We find that models, such as the MSSM, which rely on thermal loop effects are severely constrained by the measurement of a 125 GeV Higgs. Models which rely on tree-level effects from a light singlet are also restricted by invisible decay and mixing constraints. Moreover, we find that the parametric region favored by electroweak baryogenesis often coincides with an enhanced symmetry point with a distinctive phenomenological character. In particular, enhancements arising through an approximate continuous symmetry are phenomenologically disfavored, in contrast with enhancements from discrete symmetries. We also comment on the excess of diphoton events observed by ATLAS and CMS. We note that although Higgs portal models can accommodate both enhanced diphoton decay and a strongly first order electroweak phase transition, the former favors a negative Higgs portal coupling whereas the latter favors a positive one, and therefore these two constraints are at tension with one another.

Is Higgs inflation ruled out

We consider the status of Higgs inflation in light of the recently announced detection of B modes in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation by the BICEP2 Collaboration. In order for the primordial B-mode signal to be observable by BICEP2, the energy scale of inflation must be high: V inf ≈ 2 × 1 0 16 GeV . Higgs inflation generally predicts a small amplitude of tensor perturbations, and therefore it is natural to ask if Higgs inflation might accommodate this new measurement. We find that the answer is essentially no, unless one considers either extreme fine-tuning or possibly adding new beyond the Standard Model fields, which remove some of the more attractive features of the original idea. We also explore the possible importance of a factor that has not previously been explicitly incorporated, namely the gauge dependence of the effective potential used in calculating inflationary observables (e.g., n S and r ), to see if this might provide additional wiggle room. Such gauge effects are comparable to the effects of Higgs mass uncertainties and other observables already considered in the analysis, and therefore they are relevant for constraining models. However, they are therefore too small to remove the apparent incompatibility between the BICEP2 observation and the predictions of Higgs inflation.

Probing the electroweak phase transition with Higgs factories and gravitational waves

After the discovery of the Higgs boson, understanding the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking and the associated electroweak phase transition has become the most pressing question in particle physics. Answering this question is a priority for experimental studies. Data from the LHC and future lepton collider-based Higgs factories may uncover new physics coupled to the Higgs boson, which can induce the electroweak phase transition to become first order. Such a phase transition generates a stochastic background of gravitational waves, which could potentially be detected by a space-based gravitational wave interferometer. In this paper, we survey a few classes of models in which the electroweak phase transition is strongly first order. We identify the observables that would provide evidence of these models at the LHC and next-generation lepton colliders, and we assess whether the corresponding gravitational wave signal could be detected by eLISA. We find that most of the models with first-order electroweak phase transition can be covered by the precise measurements of Higgs couplings at the proposed Higgs factories. We also map out the model space that can be probed with gravitational wave detection by eLISA.

Leptogenesis and primordial magnetic fields

The anomalous conversion of leptons into baryons during leptogenesis is shown to produce a right-handed helical magnetic field; in contrast, the magnetic field produced during electroweak baryogenesis is known to be left-handed. If the cosmological medium is turbulent, the magnetic field evolves to have a present day coherence scale ∼ 10 pc and field strength ∼ 10{sup −18} Gauss. This result is insensitive to the energy scale at which leptogenesis took place. Observations of the amplitude, coherence scale, and helicity of the intergalactic magnetic field promise to provide a powerful probe of physics beyond the Standard Model and the very early universe.

Strongly First Order Phase Transitions Near an Enhanced Discrete Symmetry Point

Abstract We propose a group theoretic condition which may be applied to extensions of the Standard Model in order to locate regions of parameter space in which the electroweak phase transition is strongly first order, such that electroweak baryogenesis may be a viable mechanism for generating the baryon asymmetry of the universe. Specifically, we demonstrate that the viable corners of parameter space may be identified by their proximity to an enhanced discrete symmetry point. At this point, the global symmetry group of the theory is extended by a discrete group under which the scalar sector is non-trivially charged, and the discrete symmetry is spontaneously broken such that the discrete symmetry relates degenerate electroweak preserving and breaking vacua. This idea is used to investigate several specific models of the electroweak symmetry breaking sector. The phase transitions identified through this method suggest implications for other relics such as dark matter and gravitational waves.

Electroweak Phase Transition in the munuSSM

An extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model called the μνSSM does not allow a conventional thermal leptogenesis scenario because of the low scale seesaw that it utilizes. Hence, we investigate the possibility of electroweak baryogenesis. Specifically, we identify a parameter region for which the electroweak phase transition is sufficiently strongly first order to realize electroweak baryogenesis. In addition to transitions that are similar to those in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, we find a novel class of phase transitions in which there is a rotation in the singlet vector space.

Baryogenesis from decaying magnetic helicity

As a result of the Standard Model chiral anomalies, baryon number is violated in the early Universe in the presence of a hypermagnetic field with varying helicity. We investigate whether the matter/antimatter asymmetry of the Universe can be created from the decaying helicity of a primordial (hyper)magnetic field before and after the electroweak phase transition. In this model, baryogenesis occurs without (

Cosmic Strings in Hidden Sectors: 1. Radiation of Standard Model Particles

B\ensuremath{-}L

Evolution of the baryon asymmetry through the electroweak crossover in the presence of a helical magnetic field

)-violation, since the (

Chiral charge erasure via thermal fluctuations of magnetic helicity

B+L