Minima of Classically Scale-Invariant Potentials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new formalism for analyzing the extremum structure of scale-invariant effective potentials, improving upon existing methods and identifying conditions for multiple radiative minima in multi-field models.

Contribution

A novel matrix-based formalism for studying extremum structures of scale-invariant potentials, extending beyond Gildener-Weinberg approximation, applicable to multi-field scenarios.

Findings

Method identifies conditions for radiative minima at different scales.

Application to Standard-Model-like scenario with two radiative minima.

Results extend to general potentials using tensor algebra.

Abstract

We propose a new formalism to analyse the extremum structure of scale-invariant effective potentials. The problem is stated in a compact matrix form, used to derive general expressions for the stationary point equation and the mass matrix of a multi-field RG-improved effective potential. Our method improves on (but is not limited to) the Gildener-Weinberg approximation and identifies a set of conditions that signal the presence of a radiative minimum. When the conditions are satisfied at different scales, or in different subspaces of the field space, the effective potential has more than one radiative minimum. We illustrate the method through simple examples and study in detail a Standard-Model-like scenario where the potential admits two radiative minima. Whereas we mostly concentrate on biquadratic potentials, our results carry over to the general case by using tensor algebra.