A technique for natural gauge boson masses

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breaking that avoids quadratic divergences, potentially addressing the hierarchy problem in gauge theories by linking gauge boson masses to gravitational parameters.

Contribution

It presents a novel symmetry breaking mechanism using scale-dependent effective actions coupled to gravity, providing a way to relate gauge boson masses to gravitational constants and experimental data.

Findings

Restrictions on gravitational and matter constants from Higgs mass comparison

Application to asymptotic safety scenario constrains matter content

Mechanism avoids quadratic divergences in gauge theories

Abstract

In this work, a novel mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breaking is presented. This mechanism avoids quadratic divergencies and is thus capable of addressing the hierarchy problem in gauge theories. Using the scale-dependent effective action $\Gamma_{k}$ minimally coupled to a gravitational sector, variational parameter setting is applied. This provides a mass and vacuum expectation value as a function of the constants arising in the low scale expansion of Newtons' and cosmological couplings. A comparison with experimental data, such as the Higgs mass, allows putting restrictions on these constants. With this generic approach one can compare with explicit candidates for an effective field theory of gravity. As an example, we use the asymptotic safety scenario, where we find restrictions on the matter content of the theory.