Higgs Vacuum Decay from Particle Collisions?

TL;DR

This paper investigates how large extra dimensions influence black hole-induced Higgs vacuum decay within the Randall-Sundrum model, revealing that small black holes can catalyze decay in higher-dimensional scenarios, with implications for cosmic ray collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a model for black hole seeded vacuum decay in warped extra dimensions and relates the instanton action to black hole areas, extending previous four-dimensional results.

Findings

Small black holes can catalyze vacuum decay in braneworld scenarios.

The instanton action equals the difference in bulk black hole areas.

Collider black holes are unlikely to cause Higgs decay, but cosmic rays might.

Abstract

We examine the effect of large extra dimensions on black hole seeded vacuum decay using the Randall-Sundrum model as a prototype for warped extra dimensions. We model the braneworld black hole by a tidal solution, and solve the Higgs equations of motion for the instanton on the brane. Remarkably, the action of the static instanton can be shown to be the difference in the bulk areas of the seed and remnant black holes, and we estimate these areas assuming the black holes are small compared to the bulk AdS radius. Comparing to the Hawking evaporation rate shows that small black hole seeds preferentially catalyse vacuum decay, thus extending our previous results to higher dimensional braneworld scenarios. The parameter ranges do not allow for Standard Model Higgs decay from collider black holes, but they can be relevant for cosmic ray collisions.