Next-to-Next-Leading Order analysis of electroweak vacuum stability and rising inflection point

TL;DR

This paper performs a high-precision, gauge-independent analysis of the Standard Model's electroweak vacuum stability and the Higgs potential at a rising inflection point, considering uncertainties and implications for inflation.

Contribution

It provides a NNLO analysis of gauge-independent observables related to vacuum stability and inflection points, re-evaluating uncertainties and exploring cosmological applications.

Findings

Identifies the top mass value for vacuum stability.

Determines the Higgs potential at the inflection point.

Assesses uncertainties affecting stability predictions.

Abstract

We show an analysis on the gauge-independent observables associated with two stationary configurations of the Standard Model (SM) potential (extrapolated to high energy at Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Order (NNLO)): i) the value of the top mass ensuring stability of the SM electroweak vacuum 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, keeping alive the possibility for the SM of being stable and studying applications of such configuration to models of primordial inflation.