Stationary configurations of the Standard Model Higgs potential: electroweak stability and rising inflection point

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the Standard Model Higgs potential at high energies, focusing on electroweak stability and inflection points, revealing compatibility with data and tensions with cosmological inflation constraints.

Contribution

It provides a gauge-independent analysis of stationary Higgs potential configurations, assessing their implications for stability and inflation.

Findings

SM stability compatible with data at 1.5 sigma

Large theoretical errors in inflection point potential

Tension with inflation bounds at 3 sigma

Abstract

We study the gauge-independent observables associated with two interesting stationary configurations of the Standard Model Higgs potential (extrapolated to high energy according to the present state of the art, namely the NNLO): i) the value of the top mass ensuring stability of the SM electroweak minimum, and ii) the value of the Higgs potential at a rising inflection point. We examine in detail and reappraise the experimental and theoretical uncertainties which plague their determination, finding that: i) stability of the SM is compatible with the present data at the 1.5 sigma level; ii) despite the large theoretical error plaguing the value of the Higgs potential at a rising inflection point, application of such configuration to models of primordial inflation displays a 3 sigma tension with the recent bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio of cosmological perturbations.