Two-Higgs-doublet model from the group-theoretic perspective

Abstract

In the two-Higgs-doublet model, different Higgs doublets can be viewed as components of a generic "hyperspinor". We decompose the Higgs potential of this model into irreducible representations of the SU(2) group of transformations of this hyperspinor. We discuss invariant combinations of the Higgs potential parameters lambda_i that arise in this decomposition and provide simple and concise sets of conditions for the hidden Z_2-symmetry, Peccei-Quinn symmetry, and explicit CP-conservation in 2HDM. We show that some results obtained previously by brute-force calculations are reduced to simple linear algebraic statements in our approach.

Comments: 10 pages; v3: expanded section on consequences, added subsections on CP-conservation, PQ symmetry, RG evolution; v4: misprints corrected; to appear in Physics Letters B