Higgs Mass and Gravity Waves in Standard Model False Vacuum Inflation

TL;DR

This paper explores Higgs-driven inflation in the Standard Model's false vacuum, linking Higgs mass, gravity wave production, and recent experimental data, proposing that a non-minimal coupling can reconcile theory with observations.

Contribution

It refines previous models by calculating the inflation scale dependence on Higgs mass and introduces non-minimal coupling to align predictions with experimental results.

Findings

Higgs mass below 124 GeV is compatible with inflation and gravity wave constraints.

Overproduction of gravity waves occurs for higher Higgs masses without modifications.

Non-minimal coupling can extend the viable Higgs mass range for inflation.

Abstract

In previous publications we have proposed that Inflation can be realized in a second minimum of the Standard Model Higgs potential at energy scales of about $10^{16}$ GeV, if the minimum is not too deep and if a mechanism which allows a transition to the radiation dominated era can be found. This is provided, {\it e.g.}, by scalar-tensor gravity models or hybrid models. Using such ideas we had predicted the Higgs boson mass to be of about $126\pm 3$ GeV, which has been confirmed by the LHC, and that a possibly measurable amount of gravity waves should be produced. Using more refined recent theoretical calculations of the RGE we show that such scenario has the right scale of Inflation only for small Higgs mass, lower than about 124 GeV, otherwise gravity waves are overproduced. The precise value is subject to some theoretical error and to experimental errors on the determination of the strong coupling constant. Such an upper bound corresponds also to the recent claimed measurement by BICEP2 of the scale of inflation through primordial tensor modes. Finally we show that introducing a moderately large non-minimal coupling for the Higgs field the bound can shift to larger values and be reconciled with the LHC measurements of the Higgs mass.