Dark energy from non-degenerate Higgs-vacuum

TL;DR

This paper proposes a modified two-Higgs doublet model with non-degenerate minima, suggesting that the second Higgs doublet can serve as a dark energy candidate capable of driving late-time cosmic acceleration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel two-Higgs doublet model with non-degenerate minima, exploring its potential to explain dark energy through the second doublet's vacuum structure.

Findings

Second Higgs doublet can act as dark energy candidate

Model allows for late-time cosmic acceleration

Vacuum expectation value of second doublet is zero

Abstract

Scalar fields are favorite among the possible candidates for the dark energy. Most frequently discussed are those with degenerate minima at $\pm \phi_{min}$. In this paper, a slightly modified two-Higgs doublet model is taken to contain the Higgs field(s) as the dark energy candidate(s). The model considered has two non-degenerate minima at $\phi_{\pm}$, instead of one degenerate minimum at $\pm\phi_{min}$. The component fields of one SU(2) doublet ($\phi_1$) act as the standard model (SM) Higgs, while the component fields of the second doublet ($\phi_2$) are taken to be the dark energy candidates (lying in the true vacuum). It is found that one \emph{can} arrange for late time acceleration (dark energy) by using an SU(2) Higgs doublet, whose vacuum expectation value is zero, in the quintessential regime.