Non-minimal CW inflation, electroweak symmetry breaking and the 750 GeV anomaly

TL;DR

This paper explores a model where the 750 GeV resonance at the LHC is a Coleman-Weinberg inflaton non-minimally coupled to gravity, linking inflation, electroweak symmetry breaking, and new physics detectable at the LHC.

Contribution

It proposes a unified scenario connecting the 750 GeV resonance with inflation and electroweak symmetry breaking, predicting specific bounds on tensor-to-scalar ratio and exotic particles.

Findings

Predicts a lower bound on tensor-to-scalar ratio r ≥ 0.006

Links the diphoton signal to new charged and coloured states

Identifies exotic particles accessible at the LHC

Abstract

We study whether the hinted 750 GeV resonance at the LHC can be a Coleman-Weinberg inflaton which is non-minimally coupled to gravity. Since the inflaton must couple to new charged and coloured states to reproduce the LHC diphoton signature, the same interaction can generate its effective potential and trigger the electroweak symmetry breaking via the portal coupling to the Higgs boson. This inflationary scenario predicts a lower bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio of $r\gtrsim 0.006$, where the minimal value corresponds to the measured spectral index $n_s\simeq0.97$. However, we find that the compatibility with the LHC diphoton signal requires exotic new physics at energy scales accessible at the LHC. We study and quantify the properties of the predicted exotic particles.