We discuss first-order electroweak phase transition in models with extended Higgs sectors for the case with relatively heavy additional scalar bosons. We first show that, by the combination of the sphaleron decoupling condition, perturbative unitarity and vacuum stability, mass upper bounds on additional scalar bosons can be obtained at the TeV scale even at the alignment limit where the lightest Higgs boson behaves exactly like the SM Higgs boson at tree level. We then discuss phenomenological impacts of the case with the additional scalar bosons with the mass near 1 TeV. Even when they are too heavy to be directly detected at current and future experiments at hadron colliders, the large deviation in the triple Higgs boson coupling can be a signature for first-order phase transition due to quantum effects of such heavy additional Higgs bosons. On the other hand, gravitational waves from the first-order phase transition are found to be weaker in this case as compared to that with lower masses of additional scalar bosons.
In this talk I discuss the interpretation of LHC Higgs measurements within the electroweak chiral Lagrangian, paying particular attention to the role of power counting.
The first LHC run has confirmed the Standard Model as the correct theory at the electroweak scale, and the existence of a Higgs-like particle associated with the spontaneous breaking of the electroweak gauge symmetry. These lectures overview the present knowledge on the Higgs boson and discuss alternative scenarios of electroweak symmetry breaking which are already being constrained by the experimental data.
An introduction to electroweak symmetry breaking and Higgs physics is presented for the Standard Model and its supersymmetric extensions. A brief overview will also be given on strong interactions of the electroweak gauge bosons in alternative scenarios. In addition to the theoretical basis, the present experimental status of Higgs physics and implications for future experiments at the LHC and $e^+e^-$ linear colliders are discussed.
LEP precision on electroweak measurements was sufficient not to hamper the extraction of Higgs couplings at the LHC. But the foreseen permille-level Higgs measurements at future lepton colliders might suffer from parametric electroweak uncertainties in the absence of a dedicated electroweak program. We perform a joint, complete and consistent effective-field-theory analysis of Higgs and electroweak processes. The full electroweak-sector dependence of the $e^+e^- \to WW$ production process is notably accounted for, using statistically optimal observables. Up-to-date HL-LHC projections are combi…
We present the HiggsPO UFO model for Monte Carlo event generation of electroweak $VH$ and VBF Higgs production processes at NLO in QCD in the formalism of Higgs pseudo-observables (PO). We illustrate the use of this tool by studying the QCD corrections, matched to a parton shower, for several benchmark points in the Higgs PO parameter space. We find that, while being sizable and thus important to be considered in realistic experimental analyses, the QCD higher-order corrections largely factorize. As an additional finding, based on the NLO results, we advocate to consider 2D distributions of th…
Results for the complete NLO electroweak corrections to Standard Model Higgs production via gluon fusion are included in the total cross section for hadronic collisions. Artificially large threshold effects are avoided working in the complex-mass scheme. The numerical impact at LHC (Tevatron) energies is explored for Higgs mass values up to 500 GeV (200 GeV). Assuming a complete factorization of the electroweak corrections, one finds a +5 % shift with respect to the NNLO QCD cross section for a Higgs mass of 120 GeV both at the LHC and the Tevatron. Adopting two different factorization schemes…
We present an update of the global fit of the Standard Model electroweak sector to latest experimental results. We include new kinematic top quark and $W$ boson mass measurements from the LHC, a $\sin^2θ^{\ell}_{\mathrm{eff}}$ result from the Tevatron, and a new evaluation of the hadronic contribution to $α(M_Z^2)$. We present tests of the internal consistency of the electroweak Standard Model and updated numerical predictions of key observables. The electroweak data combined with measurements of the Higgs boson coupling strengths and flavour physics observables are used to constrain parameter…
Motivated by the future precision test of the Higgs boson at an $e^+e^-$ Higgs factory, we calculate the production $e^+e^- \to ZHγ$ in the Standard Model with complete next-to-leading order electroweak corrections. We find that for $\sqrt{s}=240$ (350) GeV the cross section of this production is sizably reduced by the electroweak corrections, which is $1.03$ (5.32) fb at leading order and 0.72 (4.79) fb at next-to-leading order. The transverse momentum distribution of the photon in the final states is also presented.
I discuss the importance of the $O(g^4 m_t^2/\mw^2)$ corrections to the effective electroweak angle and Mw in the indirect determination of the Higgs mass. I emphasize the rôle of a very precise Mw measurement on the Mh estimate.
The global fit of the Standard Model predictions to electroweak precision data, which has been routinely performed in the past decades by several groups, led to the prediction of the top quark and the Higgs boson masses before their respective discoveries. With the measurement of the Higgs boson mass at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012 by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, the last free parameter of the Standard Model of particle physics has been fixed, and the global electroweak fit can be used to test the full internal consistency of the electroweak sector of the Standard Model and con…
We derive bounds from oblique parameters on the dimension-6 operators of an effective field theory of electroweak gauge bosons and the Higgs doublet. The loop- induced contributions to the S, T, and U oblique parameters are sensitive to these contributions and we pay particular attention to the role of renormalization when computing loop corrections in the effective theory. Limits on the coefficients of the effective theory from loop contributions to oblique parameters yield complementary information to direct Higgs production measurements.
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 …
We construct a minimal viable extension of the standard model (SM) with classical scale symmetry. Its scalar sector contains a complex singlet in addition to the SM Higgs doublet. The scale-invariant and CP-symmetric Higgs potential generates radiative electroweak symmetry breaking a la Coleman-Weinberg, and gives a natural solution to the hierarchy problem, free from fine-tuning. Besides the 125GeV SM-like Higgs particle, it predicts a new CP-even Higgs (serving as the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of scale symmetry breaking) and a CP-odd scalar singlet (providing the dark matter candidate) at…
We present a new global fit to precision electroweak data, including new low- and high-energy data and analyzing the radiative corrections arising from the minimal symmetry breaking sectors of the Standard Model (SM) and its supersymmetric extension (MSSM). It is shown that present data favor a Higgs mass of O(M_Z): M_H = 76+152-50 GeV. We confront our analysis with (meta)stability and perturbative bounds on the SM Higgs mass, and the theoretical upper bound on the MSSM Higgs mass. Present data do not discriminate significantly between the SM and MSSM Higgs mass ranges. We comment in passing o…
Processes where $W$ and $Z$ bosons scatter into pairs of electroweak bosons $W$, $Z$, and Higgs, are sensitive probes of new physics in the electroweak sector. We study simplified models that describe typical scenarios of new physics and parameterize the range of possible LHC results between the Standard-Model prediction and unitarity limits. Extending the study beyond purely longitudinal scattering, we investigate the role of transversally polarized gauge bosons. Unitarity becomes an essential factor, and limits on parameters matched to the naive perturbative low-energy effective theory turn …
The current electroweak data and the constraints on the Higgs mass are discussed. Within the context of the Standard Model the data prefer a relatively light Higgs mass.
We match the electroweak chiral Lagrangian with two singlet scalars to the next-to-minimal composite Higgs model with $ SO(6)/SO(5) $ coset structure and extract the scalar divergences to one loop. Assuming the additional scalar to be heavy, we integrate it out and perform a matching to the well-established electroweak chiral Lagrangian with one light Higgs.
This lecture discusses the Higgs boson sector of the SM and the MSSM, including their connection to electroweak precision physics and the searches for SM and SUSY Higgs bosons at the LHC.
An essential goal of the Higgs physics program at the LHC and beyond is to explore the nature of the Higgs potential and shed light on the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. An important class of models defining the strength and order of the electroweak phase transition is driven by the Higgs boson coupling to a light new state. This Snowmass white paper points out the existence of a region of parameter space where a strongly first order electroweak phase transition is compatible with exotic decays of the SM-like Higgs boson. A dedicated search for exotic Higgs decays can actively exp…
We derive electroweak Z-string solutions in the Glashow-Weinberg-Salam model with two Higgs doublets. The existence of such solutions in particular requires a specific relation between the ratio of the two Higgs vacuum expectation values, {\it i.e.} $\tanβ$, and the couplings in the Higgs potential.
The manner in which the parameters of a two-Higgs-doublet model can be chosen so that no Higgs boson is discovered at a $\sqrt{s}\leq 800\gev$ $\epem$ collider, while maintaining consistency with current precision electroweak measurements, is described. The importance of a Giga-$Z$ factory and higher collider energies for such a scenario is emphasized.
In the gauge-Higgs unification scenario 4D Higgs fields are unified with gauge fields in higher dimensions. The electroweak model is constructed in the Randall-Sundrum warped space. The electroweak symmetry is dynamically broken by the Hosotani mechanism due to the top quark contribution. The Higgs mass is predicted to be around 50 GeV with the vanishing ZZH and WWH couplings so that the LEP2 bound for the Higgs mass is evaded.
We calculate both the cubic and the quartic self-couplings of the lighter scalar Higgs boson without assuming the decoupling limit in the two-Higgs-doublet model (THDM). In some regions of parameter space of the THDM where the electroweak phase transition is strongly first order, it is possible that the quartic self-coupling of the lighter scalar Higgs boson might be deviated by at least 40 % from the standard model prediction.
These three lectures review the state of our understanding of electroweak interactions and the search for the agent of electroweak symmetry breaking. The themes of the lectures are (i) the electroweak theory and its experimental status, (ii) the standard-model Higgs boson, and (iii) aspects of electroweak theory beyond the standard SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y model.
The recent calculation of the next-to-leading order electroweak corrections to the decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson to two photons in the framework of the complex-mass scheme is briefly summarized.
The little Higgs idea is an alternative to supersymmetry as a solution to the gauge hierarchy problem. In this note, I review various little Higgs models and their phenomenology with emphases on the precision electroweak constraints in these models.
Light new physics weakly coupled to the Higgs can induce a strong first-order electroweak phase transition (EWPT). Here, we argue that scenarios in which the EWPT is driven first-order by a light scalar with mass between $\sim 10$ GeV - $m_h/2$ and small mixing with the Higgs will be conclusively probed by the high-luminosity LHC and future Higgs factories. Our arguments are based on analytic and numerical studies of the finite-temperature effective potential and provide a well-motivated target for exotic Higgs decay searches at the LHC and future lepton colliders.
In the Standard Model (SM), the Higgs mass around 125 GeV implies that the electroweak vacuum is metastable since the quartic Higgs coupling turns negative at high energies. I point out that a tiny mixing of the Higgs with a heavy singlet can make the electroweak vacuum completely stable. This is due to a tree level correction to the Higgs mass-coupling relation, which survives in the zero-mixing/heavy-singlet limit. Such a situation is experimentally indistinguishable from the SM, unless the Higgs self-coupling can be measured. As a result, Higgs inflation and its variants can still be viable…
We propose a new model of 5D $SU(3)\otimes U(1)_X$ gauge-Higgs unification with a successful electroweak symmetry breaking and a realistic Higgs boson mass. In our model, the representations of the fermions are very simple, the ${\bf 3}, \overline{\bf 3}$ and $\bf \overline{15}$ representations of $SU(3)$ gauge group. Employing the anti-periodic boundary conditions for $\bf \overline{15}$ reduces massless exotic fermions and simplifies the brane localized mass terms. We calculate the 1-loop Higgs potential in detail and find that a realistic electroweak symmetry breaking and the observed Higgs…
The electroweak radiative correction, which turned out to be marginal within the standard electroweak model having the minimal Higgs sector in view of the present experimental information, fits well the experiment when the Higgs sector is extended to have two Higgs doublets. We predict the range where the charged and CP odd Higgs boson masses would lie, taking the two CP even neutral Higgs boson masses to be degenerate which makes the analysis in multiparameter space feasible. It is shown that the mass of neutral Higgs doublet boson can arbitrarily be large consistently with the $W$ mass, if t…
The existence of a second Higgs doublet in Nature could lead to a cosmological first order electroweak phase transition and explain the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. We explore the parameter space of such a two-Higgs-doublet-model and show that a first order electroweak phase transition strongly correlates with a significant uplifting of the Higgs vacuum w.r.t. its Standard Model value. We then obtain the spectrum and properties of the new scalars $H_0$, $A_0$ and $H^{\pm}$ that signal such a phase transition, showing that the decay $A_0 \rightarrow H_0 Z$ at the L…
The possibility of a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition by means of a dimension-six Higgs operator in the Higgs potential of the standard model is studied at finite temperature at the one-loop level. Exact calculation of the one-loop effective Higgs potential at finite temperature suggests that for the Higgs boson with its mass between 115 and 132 GeV the strongly first-order electroweak phase transition is possible if a dimension-six operator is present.
This review provides an elementary discussion of electroweak symmetry breaking in the minimal and the next-to-minimal supersymmetric models with the focus on the fine-tuning problem -- the tension between natural electroweak symmetry breaking and the direct search limit on the Higgs boson mass. Two generic solutions of the fine-tuning problem are discussed in detail: models with unusual Higgs decays; and models with unusual pattern of soft supersymmetry breaking parameters.
We calculate next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to electroweak Higgs plus three jet production. Both vector boson fusion (VBF) and Higgs-strahlung type contributions are included along with all interferences. The calculation is implemented within the Matchbox NLO framework of the Herwig++ event generator.
I present applications of a master formula for next-to-next-to-leading order soft and virtual QCD corrections to various electroweak, Higgs, and supersymmetric processes. They include Drell-Yan and charged Higgs production, single-top production in flavor-changing neutral-current processes, and squark and gluino production.
The status of various precisely measured electroweak parameters is reviewed. Natural relations among them are shown to constrain the Higgs mass, m_H, via quantum loop effects to relatively low values. A comparison with direct Higgs searches is made.
Little Higgs theories are a fascinating new idea to solve the little hierarchy problem by stabilizing the Higgs mass against one-loop quadratically divergent radiative corrections. In this talk I give a brief overview of the idea, focusing mainly on the littlest Higgs model, and present a sampling of the electroweak precision constraints.
We examine the prospects for discovering and elucidating the weakly-coupled Higgs sector at future collider experiments. The Higgs search consists of three phases: (i) discovery of a Higgs candidate, (ii) verification of the Higgs interpretation of the signal, and (iii) precision measurements of Higgs sector properties. The discovery of one Higgs boson with Standard Model properties is not sufficient to expose the underlying structure of the electroweak symmetry breaking dynamics. It is critical to search for evidence for a non-minimal Higgs sector and/or new physics associated with electrowea…
The framework of the electroweak chiral Lagrangian with a light Higgs is extended by an additional scalar and then generalized to N scalars in the Higgs sector. Divergences from scalar fluctuations are renormalized up to one loop using the background field method. The results are crosschecked against the case of one scalar. A subset of the divergences is demonstrated and crosschecked diagrammatically. Together with the complete one-loop renormalization of the electroweak chiral theory with one light Higgs conducted previously, this constitutes a renormalization framework of any pure scalar ext…
We explore the connection between the strength of the electroweak phase transition and the properties of the Higgs boson. Our interest is in regions of parameter space that can realize electroweak baryogenesis. We do so in a simplified framework in which a single Higgs field couples to new scalar fields charged under SU(3)_c by way of the Higgs portal. Such new scalars can make the electroweak phase transition more strongly first-order, while contributing to the effective Higgs boson couplings to gluons and photons through loop effects. For Higgs boson masses in the range 115 GeV < m_h < 130 G…
We perform an updated fit to LHC Higgs data and LEP electroweak precision tests in the framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). We assume a generic structure of the SMEFT operators without imposing any flavour symmetries. The implementation is released as part of the public global SMEFT likelihood. This allows one to fit parameters of a broad class of new physics models to combined Higgs, electroweak, quark flavour, and lepton flavour observables.
We present an introduction to the basic concepts of electroweak symmetry breaking and Higgs physics within the Standard Model and its supersymmetric extensions. A brief overview will also be given on alternative mechanisms of electroweak symmetry breaking. In addition to the theoretical basis, the present experimental status of Higgs physics and prospects at the Tevatron, the LHC and e+e- linear colliders are discussed.
In this talk I will give a brief introduction to Little Higgs models in general, including an overview of all models in existence thus far. I then review some of the generic constraints on these models from electroweak precision measurements.
The electroweak symmetry is nonlinearly realized in an extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) through an additional pair of constrained Higgs doublet superfields. The superpotential couplings of this constrained Higgs doublet pair to the MSSM Higgs doublet pair catalyze their vacuum expectation values. The Higgs and Higgsino-gaugino mass spectrum is presented for several choices of supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking and Higgs superpotential mass parameters. The additional vacuum expectation values provided by the constrained fields can produce a phenomenology quite different …
We present the computer code RECOLA2 along with the first NLO electroweak corrections to Higgs production in vector-boson fusion and updated results for Higgs strahlung in the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model and Higgs-Singlet extension of the Standard Model. A fully automated procedure for the generation of tree-level and one-loop matrix elements in general models, including renormalization, is presented. We discuss the application of the Background-Field Method to the extended models. Numerical results for NLO electroweak cross sections are presented for different renormalization schemes in the Two-H…
We investigate the region of restored electroweak symmetry around a superconducting cosmic string coupled to the Weinberg-Salam model with an extra Higgs doublet. We show that the presence of the extra Higgs fields, and in particular their CP violating relative phase, does not qualitatively affect the results of Perkins and Davis[1] obtained for the standard electroweak theory. This result is neccessary to ensure the validity of some recently proposed string-mediated electroweak baryogenesis scenarios.
`Little Higgs' models, in which the Higgs particle arises as a pseudo-Goldstone boson, have a natural mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking associated with the large value of the top quark Yukawa coupling. The mechanism typically involves a new heavy SU(2)_{L} singlet top quark, T. We discuss the relationship of the Higgs boson and the two top quarks. We suggest experimental tests of the Little Higgs mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking using the production and decay of the T at the Large Hadron Collider.
This lecture discusses the Higgs boson sectors of the SM and the MSSM, in particular in view of the recently discovered particle at \sim 125.5 GeV. It also covers their connection to electroweak precision physics and the implications for the consistency tests of the respective model.
We consider the Higgs portal through which light scalars contribute both to the Higgs production and decay and Higgs effective potential at finite temperature via quantum loops. The positive Higgs portal coupling required by a strongly first order electroweak phase transition is disfavored by the current Higgs data if we consider one such scalar. We observe that by introducing a second scalar with negative Higgs portal coupling, one can not only improve the Higgs fits, but also enhance the strength of first order EWPT. We apply this mechanism to the light stop scenario for electroweak baryogen…
In this letter, we show that the electroweak symmetry is restored at high temperature for Little Higgs (LH), when including dominant higher order thermal corrections, that are consequence of the non-linear nature of the scalar sector. This leads us to suggest that the LH requires a UV completion above the scale $Λ\lesssim f$.
We propose a phenomenological solution to the Electroweak hierarchy problem. It predicts no new particles beyond those in the Standard Model. The Higgs is arbitrarily massive and slow-roll inflation can be implemented naturally. Loop corrections will be negligible even for large cutoffs.
We propose a simple five-dimensional extension of the Standard Model (SM) without any Higgs potential nor any extra fields. A Higgs doublet lives in the bulk of a flat line segment and its boundary condition is Dirichlet at the ends of the line, which causes the electroweak symmetry breaking without Higgs potential. The vacuum expectation value of the Higgs is induced from the Dirichlet boundary condition which is generally allowed in higher dimensional theories. The lightest physical Higgs has non-flat profile in the extra dimension even though the vacuum expectation value is flat. As a conse…
Electroweak scale active right-handed neutrinos such as those proposed in a recent model necessitate the enlargement of the SM Higgs sector to include Higgs triplets with doubly charged scalars. The search for and constraints on such Higgs sector has implications not only on the nature of the electroweak symmetry breaking but also on the possibility of testing the seesaw mechanism at colliders such as the LHC and the ILC.
We update our analysis of technicolour theories with techniquarks in higher dimensional representations of the technicolour gauge group in the light of the new electroweak precision data on the Z resonance.
Adding radion perturbations (up to second order) to the static (RS) metric allows us to calculate the general first and second order interactions of the radion field with the electroweak vector bosons. We use these interactions to compute precision electroweak observables in the case of Higgs-radion mixing and compare with experiment.
Cold electroweak baryogenesis was proposed as a scenario to bypass generic problems of electroweak baryogenesis within the Standard Model. In this scenario, baryogenesis takes place during an electroweak symmetry breaking transition, which is also responsible for preheating after inflation. In the simplest modelling of the scenario, only two parameters remain undetermined: The Higgs mass and the strength of CP violation. Using full real-time lattice simulations, we compute the dependence of the asymmetry on these parameters.
