Higgs boson and Top quark masses as tests of Electroweak Vacuum Stability

TL;DR

This paper uses precise measurements of the Higgs boson and top quark masses to analyze the stability of the electroweak vacuum within the Standard Model, exploring implications for early universe cosmology and neutrino physics.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of electroweak vacuum stability up to the Planck scale using NNLO calculations, including bounds on neutrino masses and conditions for a false vacuum.

Findings

Electroweak vacuum stability is currently allowed within uncertainties.

A shallow false minimum near the Planck scale could have influenced primordial inflation.

An upper bound on right-handed neutrino masses is derived from stability considerations.

Abstract

The measurements of the Higgs boson and top quark masses can be used to extrapolate the Standard Model Higgs potential at energies up to the Planck scale. Adopting a NNLO renormalization procedure, we: i) find that electroweak vacuum stability is at present allowed, discuss the associated theoretical and experimental errors and the prospects for its future tests; ii) determine the boundary conditions allowing for the existence of a shallow false minimum slightly below the Planck scale, which is a stable configuration that might have been relevant for primordial inflation; iii) derive a conservative upper bound on type I seesaw right-handed neutrino masses, following from the requirement of electroweak vacuum stability.