Instability of Higgs Vacuum via String Cloud

Abstract

We study the instability of the Higgs vacuum caused by a cloud of strings. By catalysis, the decay rate of the vacuum is highly enhanced and, when the energy density of the cloud is larger than the critical value, a semi-classical vacuum decay occurs. We also discuss the relation between the string cloud and observational constraints on the cosmic strings from the viewpoint of the catalysis, which are converted into bounds on the parameters of the Higgs potential.

Comments: 13 pages, 4 figures, v2: refs and appendix added, typos fixed, fig 2, 3 modified. to appear in Phys. Lett. B