2014/10/07 by Torabian, Mahdi
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1410.1744
The measurement of the Higgs mass at the LHC has confirmed that the Standard Model electroweak vacuum is a shallow local minimum and is not absolutely stable. In addition to a probable unacceptably fast tunneling to the deep true minimum, it is not clear how the observable present-day vacuum could be reached from the early Universe particularly following inflation. In this note it is shown that these problems can be alleviated if the Higgs field is non-minimally coupled to a higher-curvature theory of gravity which is effective in deriving inflation a la Starobinsky. Moreover, it implies that the Higgs self-coupling could be enhanced and have an observable effect at the next generation of particle colliders.