The Neutrino Option

TL;DR

This paper explores a scenario where the Higgs potential and electroweak scale are generated radiatively via a type-I seesaw mechanism with very high Majorana neutrino masses, linking neutrino physics and Higgs phenomenology.

Contribution

It proposes a novel framework where the Higgs mass and electroweak scale emerge from radiative corrections at high energies, connecting neutrino masses with the hierarchy problem.

Findings

Higgs potential consistent with experimental constraints for $m_N ext{~}10-500$ PeV.

Neutrino masses and mixings can be accommodated within this high-scale framework.

Provides an alternative approach to the hierarchy problem without stabilizing the Higgs at TeV scale.

Abstract

We discuss the possibility that the Higgs potential and electroweak scale are generated radiatively in a type-I seesaw scenario. A Higgs potential consistent with experimental constraints can be obtained in this hypothesis for a Majorana mass scale $m_N\sim 10-500$ PeV and with neutrino Yukawa couplings of order $|\omega|\sim 10^{-4.5}-10^{-6}$. Remarkably, neutrino masses and mixings can be simultaneously accommodated within this parameter space. This framework, that ties together Higgs phenomenology, precision top quark mass measurements and neutrino physics, represents an alternative approach to the hierarchy problem, in which the Higgs mass is not stabilized around the TeV scale, but rather determined by radiative corrections at higher energies. Traditional hurdles in overcoming the hierarchy problem are then traded for the new challenge of generating PeV Majorana masses while suppressing the tree-level scalar potential in the UV.