# Higgs as heavy-lifted physics during inflation

## TL;DR

This paper explores how heavy Standard Model particles, especially the Higgs boson, can produce distinctive signals in primordial non-Gaussianity during inflation, influenced by Higgs-inflaton mixing and inflation dynamics.

## Contribution

It introduces a mechanism where Higgs mass scale is uplifted by inflation effects and mixing, providing a new avenue for detecting heavy particles through cosmological non-Gaussianity signals.

## Key findings

- Heavy Higgs production leads to non-analytic momentum scaling signatures.
- Higgs-inflaton mixing enhances the Higgs mass scale during inflation.
- Non-Gaussianity signals from heavy Higgs can serve as background for cosmological collider tests.

## Abstract

Signals of heavy particle production during inflation are encoded as non-analytic momentum scaling in primordial non-Gaussianity. These non-analytic signatures can be sourced by Standard Model particles with a modified Higgs scale uplifted by the slow-roll dynamics of inflation. We show that such a lifting mechanism becomes more efficient with the presence of a strong Higgs-inflaton mixing, where the Higgs mass scale is further increased by a small speed of sound in the effective theory of inflation. As a primary step towards detecting new particles in the cosmological collider program, non-Gaussianity due to heavy Higgs production in the strong-mixing regime can act as important background signals to be tested by future cosmological surveys.