Strongly Interacting Higgs Sector in the Minimal Standard Model?

TL;DR

This paper investigates the triviality Higgs mass bound using a higher derivative regulator in a four-dimensional O(4) scalar field theory, suggesting a potentially strongly interacting Higgs sector near the TeV scale.

Contribution

It introduces a method combining lattice and continuum simulations to evaluate the Higgs mass bound with higher derivative regulators, indicating a possible strongly interacting Higgs sector.

Findings

Higher derivative regulator increases the triviality bound.

The Higgs sector may be strongly interacting in the TeV region.

Negligible dependence of the bound on regulator parameters.

Abstract

The triviality Higgs mass bound is studied with a higher derivative regulator in the spontaneously broken phase of the four dimensional O(4) symmetric scalar field theory with quartic self-interaction. The phase diagram of the O(4) model is determined in a Monte Carlo simulation which interpolates between the hypercubic lattice regulator and the higher derivative regulator in continuum space-time. The same method can be used to calculate the Higgs mass bound in continuum space-time. In a large-N analysis, when compared with a hypercubic lattice, we find a relative increase in the triviality bound of the higher derivative regulator suggesting a strongly interacting Higgs sector in the TeV region with negligible dependence on regulator parameters. When the higher derivative regulator mass is brought close to the Higgs mass the model requires a more elaborate analysis of complex ghost states in scattering amplitudes. Part Two of Extended UCSD-PTH 92-40