arXiv subjects

Gian F. Giudice

Publications and source records attributed to Gian F. Giudice.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Indirect determinations of the top quark mass

We give a complete analysis of indirect determinations of the top quark mass in the Standard Model by introducing a systematic procedure to identify observables that receive quantum corrections enhanced by powers of $M_t$. We propose to use flavour physics as a tool to extract the top quark mass. Although present data give only a poor determination, we show how future theoretical and experimental progress in flavour physics can lead to an accuracy in $M_t$ well below 2 GeV. We revisit determinations of $M_t$ from electroweak data, showing how an improved measurement of the $W$ mass leads to an accuracy well below 1 GeV.

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arXiv2015

The cosmological Higgstory of the vacuum instability

The Standard Model Higgs potential becomes unstable at large field values. After clarifying the issue of gauge dependence of the effective potential, we study the cosmological evolution of the Higgs field in presence of this instability throughout inflation, reheating and the present epoch. We conclude that anti-de Sitter patches in which the Higgs field lies at its true vacuum are lethal for our universe. From this result, we derive upper bounds on the Hubble constant during inflation, which depend on the reheating temperature and on the Higgs coupling to the scalar curvature or to the inflaton. Finally we study how a speculative link between Higgs meta-stability and consistence of quantum gravity leads to a sharp prediction for the Higgs and top masses, which is consistent with measured values.

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arXiv2015

A facility to Search for Hidden Particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case

This paper describes the physics case for a new fixed target facility at CERN SPS. The SHiP (Search for Hidden Particles) experiment is intended to hunt for new physics in the largely unexplored domain of very weakly interacting particles with masses below the Fermi scale, inaccessible to the LHC experiments, and to study tau neutrino physics. The same proton beam setup can be used later to look for decays of tau-leptons with lepton flavour number non-conservation, $τ\to 3μ$ and to search for weakly-interacting sub-GeV dark matter candidates. We discuss the evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model and describe interactions between new particles and four different portals - scalars, vectors, fermions or axion-like particles. We discuss motivations for different models, manifesting themselves via these interactions, and how they can be probed with the SHiP experiment and present several case studies. The prospects to search for relatively light SUSY and composite particles at SHiP are also discussed. We demonstrate that the SHiP experiment has a unique potential to discover new physics and can directly probe a number of solutions of beyond the Standard Model puzzles, such as neutrino masses, baryon asymmetry of the Universe, dark matter, and inflation

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arXiv2015

Softened Gravity and the Extension of the Standard Model up to Infinite Energy

Attempts to solve naturalness by having the weak scale as the only breaking of classical scale invariance have to deal with two severe difficulties: gravity and the absence of Landau poles. We show that solutions to the first problem require premature modifications of gravity at scales no larger than $10^{11}$ GeV, while the second problem calls for many new particles at the weak scale. To build models that fulfil these properties, we classify 4-dimensional Quantum Field Theories that satisfy Total Asymptotic Freedom (TAF): the theory holds up to infinite energy, where all coupling constants flow to zero. We develop a technique to identify such theories and determine their low-energy predictions. Since the Standard Model turns out to be asymptotically free only under the unphysical conditions $g_1 = 0$, $M_t = 186$ GeV, $M_τ= 0$, $M_h = 163$ GeV, we explore some of its weak-scale extensions that satisfy the requirements for TAF.

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arXiv2014

Investigating the near-criticality of the Higgs boson

We extract from data the parameters of the Higgs potential, the top Yukawa coupling and the electroweak gauge couplings with full 2-loop NNLO precision, and we extrapolate the SM parameters up to large energies with full 3-loop NNLO RGE precision. Then we study the phase diagram of the Standard Model in terms of high-energy parameters, finding that the measured Higgs mass roughly corresponds to the minimum values of the Higgs quartic and top Yukawa and the maximum value of the gauge couplings allowed by vacuum metastability. We discuss various theoretical interpretations of the near-criticality of the Higgs mass.

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arXiv2014

The light stop window

We show that a right-handed stop in the 200-400 GeV mass range, together with a nearly degenerate neutralino and, possibly, a gluino below 1.5 TeV, follows from reasonable assumptions, is consistent with present data, and offers interesting discovery prospects at the LHC. Triggering on an extra jet produced in association with stops allows the experimental search for stops even when their mass difference with neutralinos is very small and the decay products are too soft for direct observation. Using a razor analysis, we are able to set stop bounds that are stronger than those published by ATLAS and CMS.

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arXiv2014

Higgs Mass and Unnatural Supersymmetry

Assuming that supersymmetry exists well above the weak scale, we derive the full one-loop matching conditions between the SM and the supersymmetric theory, allowing for the possibility of an intermediate Split-SUSY scale. We also compute two-loop QCD corrections to the matching condition of the Higgs quartic coupling. These results are used to improve the calculation of the Higgs mass in models with high-scale supersymmetry or split supersymmetry, reducing the theoretical uncertainty. We explore the phenomenology of a mini-split scenario with gaugino masses determined by anomaly mediation. Depending on the value of the higgsino mass, the theory predicts a variety of novel possibilities for the dark-matter particle.

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arXiv2014

Probing High-Scale and Split Supersymmetry with Higgs Mass Measurements

We study the range of Higgs masses predicted by High-Scale Supersymmetry and by Split Supersymmetry, using the matching condition for the Higgs quartic coupling determined by the minimal field content. In the case of Split Supersymmetry, we compute for the first time the complete next-to-leading order corrections, including two-loop renormalization group equations and one loop threshold effects. These corrections reduce the predicted Higgs mass by a few GeV. We investigate the impact of the recent LHC Higgs searches on the scale of supersymmetry breaking. In particular, we show that an upper bound of 127 GeV on the Higgs mass implies an upper bound on the scale of Split Supersymmetry of about 10^8 GeV, while no firm conclusion can yet be drawn for High-Scale Supersymmetry.

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arXiv2014

Starobinsky-like inflation from induced gravity

We derive a general criterion that defines all single-field models leading to Starobinsky-like inflation and to universal predictions for the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio, which are in agreement with Planck data. Out of all the theories that satisfy this criterion, we single out a special class of models with the interesting property of retaining perturbative unitarity up to the Planck scale. These models are based on induced gravity, with the Planck mass determined by the vacuum expectation value of the inflaton.

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arXiv2013

Higgs mass and vacuum stability in the Standard Model at NNLO

We present the first complete next-to-next-to-leading order analysis of the Standard Model Higgs potential. We computed the two-loop QCD and Yukawa corrections to the relation between the Higgs quartic coupling (lambda) and the Higgs mass (Mh), reducing the theoretical uncertainty in the determination of the critical value of Mh for vacuum stability to 1 GeV. While lambda at the Planck scale is remarkably close to zero, absolute stability of the Higgs potential is excluded at 98% C.L. for Mh < 126 GeV. Possible consequences of the near vanishing of lambda at the Planck scale, including speculations about the role of the Higgs field during inflation, are discussed.

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arXiv2013

Naturalness after LHC8

I review the status of naturalness of the weak scale after the results from the LHC operating at an energy of 8 TeV. Talk delivered at the 2013 Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS), Stockholm, Sweden, 18-24 July 2013.

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arXiv2013

Flavoured Naturalness

We show that a large mixing between the right-handed charm and top squarks (i) is allowed by low-energy flavour constraints; (ii) reduces the experimental bound on the stop mass; (iii) has a mild, but beneficial, effect on fine-tuning; (iv) leads to interesting signatures at the LHC not presently investigated by experiments. We estimate the current bound on the stop mass, in presence of flavour mixing, and discuss the new collider signatures. The signal in the t anti-c (c anti-t) + missing E_T channel is large enough that it can be immediately searched for experimentally, while the signature with same-sign tops and missing E_T requires a luminosity upgrade of the LHC.

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arXiv2012

Correlation between the Higgs Decay Rate to Two Photons and the Muon g - 2

In the context of minimal supersymmetry with slepton mass universality we find that an enhancement in h \rightarrow gamma gamma by at least 40%, as hinted by present data, implies a deviation of the muon anomalous magnetic moment by exactly the right amount to explain the observed anomaly. The enhancement in h \rightarrow gamma gamma selects a light stau with large left-right mixing, a light Bino, and heavy higgsinos. The corresponding parameters are compatible with thermal dark matter, predict small deviations in h \rightarrow Z gamma and h \rightarrow tau tau, and measurable violations of lepton universality.

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arXiv2012

Flavor Beyond the Standard Universe

We explore the possibility that the observed pattern of quark masses is the consequence of a statistical distribution of Yukawa couplings within the multiverse. We employ the anthropic condition that only two ultra light quarks exist, justifying the observed richness of organic chemistry. Moreover, the mass of the recently discovered Higgs boson suggests that the top Yukawa coupling lies near the critical condition where the electroweak vacuum becomes unstable, leading to a new kind of flavor puzzle and to a new anthropic condition. We scan Yukawa couplings according to distributions motivated by high-scale flavor dynamics and find cases in which our pattern of quark masses has a plausible probability within the multiverse. Finally we show that, under some assumptions, these distributions can significantly ameliorate the runaway behavior leading to weakless universes.

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arXiv2012

Unificaxion

Dark matter, gauge coupling unification, and the strong CP problem find a common and simple solution (in the absence of naturalness) within axion models. We show that such solution, even without specifying the details of the model implementation, makes testable predictions for the experimentally measurable axion parameters: the axion mass and its coupling to photons.

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arXiv2012

Interpreting OPERA results on superluminal neutrino

OPERA has claimed the discovery of superluminal propagation of neutrinos. We analyze the consistency of this claim with previous tests of special relativity. We find that reconciling the OPERA measurement with information from SN1987a and from neutrino oscillations requires stringent conditions. The superluminal limit velocity of neutrinos must be nearly flavor independent, must decrease steeply in the low-energy domain, and its energy dependence must depart from a simple power law. We construct illustrative models that satisfy these conditions, by introducing Lorentz violation in a sector with light sterile neutrinos. We point out that, quite generically, electroweak quantum corrections transfer the information of superluminal neutrino properties into Lorentz violations in the electron and muon sector, in apparent conflict with experimental data.

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arXiv2012

Stabilization of the Electroweak Vacuum by a Scalar Threshold Effect

We show how a heavy scalar singlet with a large vacuum expectation value can evade the potential instability of the Standard Model electroweak vacuum. The quartic interaction between the heavy scalar singlet and the Higgs doublet leads to a positive tree-level threshold correction for the Higgs quartic coupling, which is very effective in stabilizing the potential. We provide examples, such as the see-saw, invisible axion and unitarized Higgs inflation, where the proposed mechanism is automatically implemented in well-defined ranges of Higgs masses.

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arXiv2011

Higgs mass implications on the stability of the electroweak vacuum

We update instability and metastability bounds of the Standard Model electroweak vacuum in view of the recent ATLAS and CMS Higgs results. For a Higgs mass in the range 124--126 GeV, and for the current central values of the top mass and strong coupling constant, the Higgs potential develops an instability around $10^{11}$ GeV, with a lifetime much longer than the age of the Universe. However, taking into account theoretical and experimental errors, stability up to the Planck scale cannot be excluded. Stability at finite temperature implies an upper bound on the reheat temperature after inflation, which depends critically on the precise values of the Higgs and top masses. A Higgs mass in the range 124--126 GeV is compatible with very high values of the reheating temperature, without conflict with mechanisms of baryogenesis such as leptogenesis. We derive an upper bound on the mass of heavy right-handed neutrinos by requiring that their Yukawa couplings do not destabilize the Higgs potential.

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