# On the Catalysis of the Electroweak Vacuum Decay by Black Holes at High Temperature

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how primordial black holes can catalyze the decay of the electroweak vacuum at high temperatures, especially when the Higgs field couples to gravity, potentially removing the energy barrier for vacuum transition.

## Contribution

It demonstrates that black holes can significantly lower or eliminate the energy barrier for electroweak vacuum decay when the Higgs couples to gravity via a specific term.

## Key findings

- Black holes can drastically reduce the nucleation energy barrier.
- The Higgs-gravity coupling influences vacuum decay rates.
- Vacuum decay can be catalyzed or suppressed by black hole presence.

## Abstract

We study the effect of primordial black holes on the classical rate of nucleation of AdS regions within the standard electroweak vacuum at high temperature. We find that the energy barrier for transitions to the new vacuum, which determines the exponential suppression of the nucleation rate, can be reduced significantly, or even eliminated completely, in the black-hole background if the Standard Model Higgs is coupled to gravity through the renormalizable term $\xi {\cal R} h^2$.