Hubble selection of the weak scale from QCD quantum critical point

TL;DR

This paper proposes that quantum critical points in QCD, influenced by the strange quark mass, can dynamically select the weak scale during eternal inflation, leading to a probability distribution peaked near the observed weak scale.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where quantum critical points in QCD influence the weak scale selection through inflationary quantum dynamics.

Findings

Quantum critical points in QCD can determine the weak scale.

Inflationary dynamics drive the probability distribution towards critical points.

The model predicts a sharp probability peak near the observed weak scale.

Abstract

There is growing evidence that the small weak scale may be related to self-organized criticality. In this regard, we note that if the strange quark were lighter, the QCD phase transition could have been first order, possibly exhibiting quantum critical points at zero temperature as a function of the Higgs vacuum expectation value $v_h$ smaller than (but near) the weak scale. We show that these quantum critical points allow a dynamical selection of the observed weak scale, via quantum-dominated stochastic evolutions of the value of $v_h$ during eternal inflation. Although the values of $v_h$ in different Hubble patches are described by a probability distribution in the multiverse, inflationary quantum dynamics ensures that the peak of the distribution evolves toward critical points (self-organized criticality), driven mainly by the largest Hubble expansion rate there -- the Hubble selection of the universe. To this end, we first explore the quantum critical points of the three-flavor QCD linear sigma model, parametrized by $v_h$ at zero temperature, and we present a relaxion model for the weak scale. Among the patches that have reached reheating, it results in a sharp probability distribution of $v_h$ near the observed weak scale, which is critical not to the crossover at $v_h=0$ but to the sharp transition at ${\sim}\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$.