Higgs Inflation at NNLO after the Boson Discovery

TL;DR

This paper calculates the precise bounds on Higgs and top quark masses for Higgs inflation at NNLO, revealing some tension with experimental data but not excluding the scenario due to uncertainties.

Contribution

It provides the first full NNLO analysis of Higgs inflation bounds considering current experimental uncertainties.

Findings

Higgs and top masses are close to the inflation bound.

Some tension exists between the bounds and experimental values.

Higgs inflation remains viable within uncertainties.

Abstract

We obtain the bound on the Higgs and top masses to have Higgs inflation (where the Higgs field is non-minimally coupled to gravity) at full next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO). Comparing the result obtained with the experimental values of the relevant parameters we find some tension, which we quantify. Higgs inflation, however, is not excluded at the moment as the measured values of the Higgs and top masses are close enough to the bound once experimental and theoretical uncertainties are taken into account.