2008/10/31 by Eric Greenwood, Evan Halstead, Robert Poltis +1
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-ph #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.79.103003
published as Phys.Rev.D79:103003,2009 · Expanded version. Published in Phys. Rev. D
arxiv created 2009/05/12 · arxiv updated 2010/04/21
Higher dimensional non-renormalizable operators may modify the Standard Model Higgs potential in many interesting ways. Here, we consider the appearance of a second vacuum which may play an important role in cosmology. For the certain range of parameters, the usual second order electroweak phase transition is followed by a first order phase transition that may drive the late time accelerated expansion of the universe. Such a potential contains kink-like solutions which in turn can play a crucial role in reconstructing the global shape of the potential in colliders, as we explicitly demonstrate.