We study the existence of skyrmions in the presence of all the electroweak degrees of freedom, including a dynamical Higgs boson, with the electroweak symmetry being non-linearly realized in the scalar sector. For this, we use the formulation of the Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT). In contrast with the linear realization, a well-defined winding number exists in HEFT for all scalar field configurations. We classify the effective operators that can potentially stabilize the skyrmions and numerically find the region in parameter spaces that support them. We do so by minimizing the static energy functional using neural networks. This method allows us to obtain the minimal-energy path connecting the vacuum to the skyrmion configuration and calculate its mass and radius. Since skyrmions are not expected to be produced at colliders, we explore the experimental and theoretical bounds on the operators that generate them. Finally, we briefly consider the possibility of skyrmions being dark matter candidates.
We analyze the electroweak interactions in the framework of the Higgs effective field theory using the available Higgs and electroweak diboson production results from LHC run 2 as well as the electroweak precision data. Assuming universality of the weak current, our study considers 25 possible anomalous couplings. To unveil the nature of the Higgs boson, i.e. isosinglet versus part of SU(2)L doublet, we explore the correlation effects between observables that are predicted to exist in the linear realization of the electroweak gauge symmetry but not in its non-linear counterpart. This improves …
Due to the gap between the known 100 GeV scale and new physics if any, it is natural to employ an effective one-loop Lagrangian (HEFT) for the particles of the Electroweak Symmetry Breaking Sector (W_L, Z_L and h). To describe any new particles and resonances that may be found at the LHC we employ its unitarized amplitudes, valid even in the presence of new strong interactions. We have assessed the systematics by comparing several such methods, and find that they give qualitatively similar results and succesfully produce unitary amplitudes in the nonperturbative regime. We are thus in a positi…
There are two canonical approaches to treating the Standard Model as an Effective Field Theory (EFT): Standard Model EFT (SMEFT), expressed in the electroweak symmetric phase utilizing the Higgs doublet, and Higgs EFT (HEFT), expressed in the broken phase utilizing the physical Higgs boson and an independent set of Goldstone bosons. HEFT encompasses SMEFT, so understanding whether SMEFT is sufficient motivates identifying UV theories that require HEFT as their low energy limit. This distinction is complicated by field redefinitions that obscure the naive differences between the two EFTs. By re…
Higgs Effective Field Theory can be used to study vector-boson elastic scattering at the high energies relevant for the LHC. For most of the parameter space, the scattering is strongly interacting, with the minimal Standard Model being a remarkable exception. From its one-loop treatment complemented with dispersion relations and the Equivalence Theorem, we derive two different unitarization methods which produce analytical amplitudes corresponding to different approximate solutions to the dispersion relations: the Inverse Amplitude method (IAM) and the N/D method. The partial waves obtained ca…
We report computations of the production cross-section of longitudinal electroweak and Higgs boson pairs within Effective Field Theory for the Electroweak sector (including the Higgs). We have recently reported theoretical studies of gauge boson-gauge boson and Higgs-Higgs resonance production with various quantum numbers. We are now focusing on gauge boson-Higgs boson two-body axial-vector resonances and show a typical cross section. At last, we point out that photon-photon production has also been studied (in $e^-e^+$ as well as pp machines), as this is a very clean process allowing access t…
Skyrmions are extended field configurations, initially proposed to describe baryons as topological solitons in an effective field theory of mesons. We investigate and confirm the existence of skyrmions within the electroweak sector of the Standard Model and study their properties. We find that the interplay of the electroweak sector with a dynamical Higgs field and the Skyrme term leads to a non-trivial vacuum structure with the skyrmion and perturbative vacuum sectors separated by a finite energy barrier. We identify dimension-8 operators that stabilise the electroweak skyrmion as a spatially…
We discuss the properties of the topological soliton, or the Electroweak-Skyrmion, in the system of the Standard Model Higgs Lagrangian with addition of general O(p^4) terms. We show that the upper bound on the mass of the Electroweak-Skyrmion is about 10 TeV, which is obtained from currently available experimental constraints on coefficients of O(p^4) terms. The impact on the properties of the Electroweak-Skyrmion due to further modification of the Lagrangian is also discussed, and comments on possible mechanisms for the generation of the Electroweak-Skyrmion in the early Universe as a dark m…
We propose a scenario that the Electroweak-Skyrmion, a solitonic object made of the Higgs field and the electroweak gauge fields, is identified as an asymmetric dark matter. In this scenario, the relic abundance of the dark matter is related to the baryon asymmetry of the Universe through a sphaleron-like process. We show that the observed ratio of dark matter abundance to the baryon asymmetry can be explained by this scenario with an appropriate choice of model parameters that is allowed by currently available experimental constraints.
A HEFT Perspective on the Type-II Seesaw Model and the Complete Basis of Lepton-Number-Violating Operators
School of Physics and Information Technology, Shaanxi Normal University（陕西师范大学物理与信息技术学院）；Center for Theoretical Physics of the Universe, Institute for Basic Science (IBS)（基础科学研究院宇宙理论物理中心）
The complete effective chiral Lagrangian for a dynamical Higgs is presented and constrained by means of a global analysis including electroweak precision data together with Higgs and triple gauge boson coupling data from the LHC Run~I. The operators' basis up to next-to-leading order in the expansion consists of 148 (188 considering right-handed neutrinos) flavour universal terms and it is presented here making explicit the custodial nature of the operators. This effective Lagrangian provides the most general description of the physical Higgs couplings once the electroweak symmetry is assumed,…
We show the existence of a nontrivial topological configuration of the Higgs field in the Standard Model with the Skyrme term. It is shown that the current upper bound of the mass of the topological object is about 34 TeV. We discuss the impact of the existence of the topological object on cosmology.
Skyrmions are present in many models of electroweak symmetry breaking where the Higgs is a pseudo-Goldstone boson of some strongly interacting sector. They are stable, composite objects whose mass lies in the range 10-100 TeV and can be naturally abundant in the universe due to their small annihilation cross-section. They represent therefore good dark matter candidates. We show however in this work that the lightest skyrmion states are electrically charged in most of the popular little Higgs models, and hence should have been directly or indirectly observed in nature already. The charge of the…
Vector boson scatterings are fundamental processes to shed light on the nature of the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. Deviations from the Standard Model predictions on the corresponding observables can be interpreted in terms of effective field theories, that however undergo consistency conditions. In this paper, the same-sign W W scattering is considered within the HEFT context and the correct usage of the effective field theory approach is discussed. Regions of the parameters space are identified where a signal of new physics could be measured at HL-LHC with a significance of more t…
Characterizing LHC-Resonances in extended HEFT: information on the nature of extended scalar sectors
Dipartimento di Scienze Matematiche e Informatiche, Scienze Fisiche e Scienze della Terra, Universita degli Studi di Messina（墨西拿大学数学、信息与计算机科学系，物理科学与地球科学系）；INFN Sezione di Catania（意大利国家核物理研究所卡塔尼亚分部）；Institut für Theoretische Physik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen（哥廷根大学理论物理研究所）；Departament de Física Quàntica i Astrofísica, Universitat de Barcelona（巴塞罗那大学量子物理与天体物理学系）；Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik（马克斯·普朗克核物理研究所）
A geometric formulation of Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT) is presented. Experimental observables are given in terms of geometric invariants of the scalar sigma model sector such as the curvature of the scalar field manifold $\mathcal M$. We show how the curvature can be measured experimentally via Higgs cross-sections, $W_L$ scattering, and the $S$ parameter. The one-loop action of HEFT is given in terms of geometric invariants of $\mathcal M$. The distinction between the Standard Model (SM) and HEFT is whether $\mathcal M$ is flat or curved, not whether the scalars transform linearly or …
We discuss the stability and masses of topological solitons in QCD and strongly-interacting models of electroweak symmetry breaking with arbitrary combinations of two inequivalent Lagrangian terms of fourth order in the field spatial derivatives. We find stable solitons for only a restricted range of the ratio of these combinations, in agreement with previous results, and we calculate the corresponding soliton masses. In QCD, the experimental constraints on the fourth-order terms force the soliton to resemble the original Skyrmion solution. However, this is not necessarily the case in strongly…
We formulate a generalization of Higgs effective field theory (HEFT) including arbitrary number of extra neutral and charged Higgs bosons (generalized HEFT, GHEFT) to describe non-minimal electroweak symmetry breaking models. Using the geometrical form of the GHEFT Lagrangian, which can be regarded as a nonlinear sigma model on a scalar manifold, it is shown that the scalar boson scattering amplitudes are described in terms of the Riemann curvature tensor (geometry) of the scalar manifold and the covariant derivatives of the potential. The coefficients of the one-loop divergent terms in the ob…
Electroweak interactions assign a central role to the gauge group $SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y$, which is either realized linearly (SMEFT) or nonlinearly (e.g., HEFT) in the effective theory obtained when new physics above the electroweak scale is integrated out. Although the discovery of the Higgs boson has made SMEFT the default assumption, nonlinear realization remains possible. The two can be distinguished through their predictions for the size of certain low-energy dimension-6 four-fermion operators: for these, HEFT predicts $O(1)$ couplings, while in SMEFT they are suppressed by a factor $v^2/…
Electroweak form factors of large nuclei as BPS skyrmions
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela（圣地亚哥德孔波斯特拉大学）；Instituto Galego de Física de Altas Enerxias (IGFAE)（加利西亚高能物理研究所）；University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU（巴斯克地区大学）；Universidade de Vigo（维戈大学）
The existence of a mass gap between the Standard Model (SM) and possible new states encourages us to use effective field theories. Here we follow the non-linear realization of the electroweak symmetry breaking: the electroweak effective theory (EWET), also known as Higgs effective field theory (HEFT) or electroweak chiral Lagrangian (EWChL). At short distances an effective resonance Lagrangian which couples the SM states to bosonic and fermionic resonances is considered. After integrating out the resonances and assuming a well-behaved high-energy behavior, we estimate or bound purely bosonic l…
Is the Standard Model Effective Field Theory Enough for Higgs Pair Production?
Universitat de Barcelona（巴塞罗那大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Padova（意大利国家核物理研究所帕多瓦分部）；Università di Padova（帕多瓦大学）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia（意大利国家核物理研究所佩鲁贾分部）；Università di Perugia（佩鲁贾大学）
In the light of the mass gap between Standard Model (SM) states and possible new particles, effective field theories are a suitable approach. We take on the non-linear realization of the electroweak symmetry breaking: the electroweak effective theory (EWET), also known as Higgs effective field theory (HEFT) or electroweak chiral Lagrangian (EWChL). At higher scales we consider a resonance electroweak Lagrangian, coupling SM fields to resonances. Integrating out these resonances and assuming a well-behaved high-energy behavior, some of the bosonic low-energy constants are determined or constrai…
Due to the mass gap between the Standard Model and possible New Physics states, electroweak effective approaches are appropriate. Although a linear realization of the electroweak symmetry breaking with the Higgs forming a doublet together with the Goldstone bosons of the EWSB is a first possibility (SMEFT), we adopt the more general non-linear realization, where the Higgs is a singlet with independent couplings (EWET, HEFT or EWChL). We present the effective Lagrangian at low energies (the EWET, with only the SM fields) and at high energies (the resonance theory, with also a set of resonances)…
The $S$-matrix of a quantum field theory is unchanged by field redefinitions, and so only depends on geometric quantities such as the curvature of field space. Whether the Higgs multiplet transforms linearly or non-linearly under electroweak symmetry is a subtle question since one can make a coordinate change to convert a field that transforms linearly into one that transforms non-linearly. Renormalizability of the Standard Model (SM) does not depend on the choice of scalar fields or whether the scalar fields transform linearly or non-linearly under the gauge group, but only on the geometric r…
