TY - JOUR
T1 - Cosmological consequences of a light Higgs boson
AU - Witten, Edward
N1 - Funding Information:
The consequences for cosmologyo f a Coleman-E. Weinberg light Higgs boson are considered. If SU(2) × U(1) symmetry breaking is induced by such a boson, the early universe went far out of equilibrium at the time of the SU(2) × U(I) phase transition. The universe supercooled far below the equilibrium transition temperature. The decay of the unstable vacuum, when it finally occurred, was induced by a process of "dynamical symmetry breaking" and increased the entropy to baryon ratio of the universe by a factor of 105 or 106 . (Related matters have been treated in recent work by Guth and E. Weinberg.) The mechanism for the breaking of the SU(2) × U(1) gauge symmetry of weak interactions is not well understood. We do not know whether this symmetry breaking is dynamical or whether it is induced by elementary Higgs scalars. If elementary scalars do exist, we do not know much about their masses or self-couplings. A few years ago, Coleman and E. Weinberg suggested that elementary scalars might be constrained to have "'zero bare mass" in the sense that (d2V/d~b2),_ 0 --0. This condition was shown to lead to symmetry breaking through radiative corrections. Gildener and S. Weinberg have argued \[2\]t hat large gauge hierarchies in theories with fundamental scalars are most natural if the Coleman-E. Weinberg condition is satisfied. This argument is quite speculative, particularly since no theory has ever been found in which the "zero bare mass" condition is really natural. But it is interesting to pursue the consequences of assuming that scalars satisfying this condition exist. In this paper I will discuss the consequences for cosmology of assuming that the SU(2)× U(1) gauge symmetry breaking is of Coleman-Weinberg type. The reason that this assumption has interesting implications for cosmology is that it is believed that at very high temperatures the SU(2)× U(1) symmetry is unbroken \[3\].A s the early universe expanded and cooled, it went through a phase transition, at a temperature usually estimated to have been a few hundered GeV, where SU(2) × U(1) was broken. At a phase transition, it is possible to go badly out * Research supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grant no. PHY77-22864 and the Harvard Society of Fellows.
PY - 1981/1/19
Y1 - 1981/1/19
N2 - The consequences for cosmology of a Coleman-E. Weinberg light Higgs boson are considered. If SU(2) × U(1) symmetry breaking is induced by such a boson, the early universe went far out of equilibrium at the time of the SU(2) × U(1) phase transition. The universe supercooled far below the equilibrium transition temperature. The decay of the unstable vacuum, when it finally occured, was induced by a process of "dynamical symmetry breaking" and increased the entropy to baryon ratio of the universe by a factor of 105 or 106. (Related matters have been treated in recent work by Guth and E. Weinberg.).
AB - The consequences for cosmology of a Coleman-E. Weinberg light Higgs boson are considered. If SU(2) × U(1) symmetry breaking is induced by such a boson, the early universe went far out of equilibrium at the time of the SU(2) × U(1) phase transition. The universe supercooled far below the equilibrium transition temperature. The decay of the unstable vacuum, when it finally occured, was induced by a process of "dynamical symmetry breaking" and increased the entropy to baryon ratio of the universe by a factor of 105 or 106. (Related matters have been treated in recent work by Guth and E. Weinberg.).
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U2 - 10.1016/0550-3213(81)90182-6
DO - 10.1016/0550-3213(81)90182-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:1542768340
SN - 0550-3213
VL - 177
SP - 477
EP - 488
JO - Nuclear Physics, Section B
JF - Nuclear Physics, Section B
IS - 3
ER -