Abstract
© 2018 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. The Standard Model electroweak (EW) vacuum, in the absence of new physics below the Planck scale, lies very close to the boundary between stability and metastability, with the last option being the most probable. Several cosmological implications of this socalled 'near-criticality' are discussed. In the metastable vacuum case, the main challenges that the survival of the EW vacuum faces during the evolution of the Universe are analysed. In the stable vacuum case, the possibility of implementing Higgs inflation is critically examined. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue 'Higgs cosmology'.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 20170118 |
Journal | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences |
Volume | 376 |
Issue number | 2114 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 6 Mar 2018 |
Keywords
- Higgs inflation
- Inflation
- Vacuum metastability