Higgscitement: Cosmological Dynamics of Fine Tuning

Abstract

The Higgs potential appears to be fine-tuned, hence very sensitive to values of other scalar fields that couple to the Higgs. We show that this feature can lead to a new epoch in the early universe featuring violent dynamics coupling the Higgs to a scalar modulus. The oscillating modulus drives tachyonic Higgs particle production. We find a simple parametric understanding of when this process can lead to rapid modulus fragmentation, resulting in gravitational wave production. A nontrivial equation-of-state arising from the nonlinear dynamics also affects the time elapsed from inflation to the CMB, influencing fits of inflationary models. Supersymmetric theories automatically contain useful ingredients for this picture.

Comments: v2: 8 pages + 14 pages of appendices, 10 figures. Clarified and expanded discussion, more numerical simulations and evidence, references added. Accepted by Phys Rev D