Anders Haarr | Searcharxiv

arXiv2016

Disfavouring Electroweak Baryogenesis and a hidden Higgs in a CP-violating Two-Higgs-Doublet Model

A strongly first-order electroweak phase transition is a necessary requirement for Electroweak Baryogenesis. We investigate the plausibility of obtaining a strong phase transition in a Two-Higgs-Doublet Model of type II with a minimal amount of $CP$ violation. By performing a Bayesian fit where we constrain the scalar sector with indirect and direct measurements, we find that current data disfavours a first-order phase transition in this model. This result is mainly driven by the interplay of three effects: Constraints from the LHC Higgs data on the magnitude of the quartic couplings, the requirement of a $H^\pm$ heavier than around 490 GeV to avoid large contributions to $BR(b \rightarrow sγ)$ and the fact that a first-order phase transition requires relatively light scalar states in addition to the 125 GeV Higgs. For similar reasons we find that a "hidden-Higgs" scenario, in which the 125 GeV state is identified with the next-to-lightest scalar, is disfavoured by current data independent of any requirement on the phase transition strength.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2015

$\mathcal{I}$-degenerate pseudo-Riemannian metrics

In this paper we study pseudo-Riemannian spaces with a degenerate curvature structure i.e. there exists a continuous family of metrics having identical polynomial curvature invariants. We approach this problem by utilising an idea coming from invariant theory. This involves the existence of a boost which is assumed to extend to a neighbourhood. This approach proves to be very fruitful: It produces a class of metrics containing all known examples of $\mathcal{I}$-degenerate metrics. To date, only Kundt and Walker metrics have been given, however, our study gives a plethora of examples showing that $\mathcal{I}$-degenerate metrics extend beyond the Kundt and Walker examples. The approach also gives a useful criterion for a metric to be $\mathcal{I}$-degenerate. Specifically, we use this to study the subclass of VSI and CSI metrics (i.e., spaces where polynomial curvature invariants are all vanishing or constants, respectively).

math-ph↗