arXiv subjects

Min-Seok Seo

Publications and source records attributed to Min-Seok Seo.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Festina-Lente Bound on Higgs Vacuum Structure and Inflation

The recently suggested Festina-Lente (FL) bound provides a lower bound on the masses of ${\rm U(1)}$ charged particles in terms of the positive vacuum energy. Since the charged particle masses in the Standard Model (SM) are generated by the Higgs mechanism, the FL bound provides a testbed of consistent Higgs potentials in the current dark energy-dominated universe as well as during inflation. We study the implications of the FL bound on the UV behavior of the Higgs potential for a miniscule vacuum energy, as in the current universe. We also present values of the Hubble parameter and the Higgs vacuum expectation value allowed by the FL bound during inflation, which implies that the Higgs cannot stay at the electroweak scale during this epoch.

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arXiv2021

Instability of de Sitter space under thermal radiation in different vacua

We study the instability of de Sitter space-time (dS) under thermal radiation in different vacua. We argue that the mode function solution of a scalar field in four-dimensional dS can be separated into the incoming and outgoing modes. Different vacua for dS are realized by different combinations of positive frequency modes assigned to each solution. For a minimally coupled massless scalar field, we explicitly compute the behavior of the mode function and the corresponding energy-momentum tensor in the Unruh vacuum near the horizon, and find that the horizon area increases (decreases) in time when the incoming (outgoing) mode contributes to thermal flux.

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arXiv2021

Dilaton stabilization in KKLT revisited

We study the condition for the dilaton stabilization in Type IIB flux compactifications consistent with the KKLT scenario. Since the Gukov-Vafa-Witten superpotential depends linearly on the dilaton, the dilaton mass squared is given by a sum of the gravitino mass squared and additional terms determined by the complex structure moduli stabilization. If the dilaton mass is not much enhanced from the gravitino mass, the mass mixing with the Kähler modulus in the presence of the non-perturbative effect generates the saddle point at the supersymmetric field values, hence the potential becomes unstable. When the complex structure moduli other than the conifold modulus are neglected, the saddle point problem arises over the controllable parameter space. We also point out that the dilaton stabilization condition is equivalent to the condition on the NS 3-form fluxes, $|H_{(1,2)}| > | H_{(0,3)}|$.

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arXiv2020

Eternal inflation in light of Wheeler-DeWitt equation

The Wheeler-DeWitt equation provides the probability distribution for the curvature perturbation, the gauge invariant quantum fluctuation of the inflaton. From this, we can find a tower of power spectra which is not found in a perturbative approach. Since the power spectrum for the modes that cross the horizon contributes to the uncertainty in the classical inflaton displacement, we obtain new conditions for eternal inflation. In the presence of the patch in the higher excitations, the bound on the slow-roll parameter allowing eternal inflation is given by at most $ε\lesssim (2n+1)(H/m_{\rm Pl})^2$ with $n$ integer indicating the quantum number labelling the excitation. For large $n$, the bound on $ε$ is relaxed such that eternal inflation can take place with even larger value of $ε$. While the second law of thermodynamics implies that $n=0$ state is preferred, we cannot ignore such large $n$ effect since the nonlinear interaction inducing transitions to the $n=0$ state is suppressed.

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arXiv2020

The entropic quasi-de Sitter instability time from the distance conjecture

From the entropy argument for the dS swampland conjecture which connects the Gibbons-Hawking entropy bound with the distance conjecture, we find the entropic quasi-dS instability time given by $1/(\sqrt{ε_H}H)\log(m_{\rm Pl}/H)$ as the lifetime of quasi-dS spacetime. It depends on the slow-roll parameter, and contains the logarithmic factor $\log(m_{\rm Pl}/H)$ which can be found in the scrambling (or decoherence) time as well. Such a logarithmic factor enhances the geodesic distance of the modulus from the mere Planck scale, and also possibly relaxes the bound on $m_{\rm Pl}^2 \nabla^2 V/V$.

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arXiv2020

Quantum nature of Wigner function for inflationary tensor perturbations

We study the Wigner function for the inflationary tensor perturbation defined in the real phase space. We compute explicitly the Wigner function including the contributions from the cubic self-interaction Hamiltonian of tensor perturbations. Then we argue that it is no longer an appropriate description for the probability distribution in the sense that quantum nature allows negativity around vanishing phase variables. This comes from the non-Gaussian wavefunction in the mixed state as a result of the non-linear interaction between super- and sub-horizon modes. We also show that this is related to the explicit infrared divergence in the Wigner function, in contrast to the trace of the density matrix.

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arXiv2019

Thermodynamic interpretation of the de Sitter swampland conjecture

We interpret the de Sitter swampland conjecture in the thermodynamic point of view. When the number of degrees of freedom is enhanced as the modulus rolls down the potential, the bound on $m_{\rm Pl} \nabla V/V$ is equivalent to the condition for the positive temperature phase. The boundary between the positive- and the negative temperature phases is preferred by the classical system since the entropy density is maximized. The distance conjecture imposes that (quasi-)de Sitter spacetime is entirely in the negative temperature phase and statistically disfavored. By investigating the concave potential, we also justify the bound on $m_{\rm Pl}^2 \nabla^2 V/V$.

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arXiv2019

de Sitter swampland bound in the Dirac-Born-Infeld inflation model

We study the de Sitter (dS) swampland conjecture in the Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) inflation model. We obtain the dS swampland bound for the relativistic regime using Bousso's entropy bound argument and proper distance. It restricts $m_{\rm Pl}\nabla V/V$ by some positive constant depending on warping and the field range. In the specific case of the DBI model driven by the quadratic potential, the model-dependent backreaction argument is interpreted as a natural bound for the slow-roll parameter. This shows that quasi-dS spacetime in the DBI model is a result of tuning.

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arXiv2019

Quantum non-linear evolution of inflationary tensor perturbations

We study the quantum mechanical evolution of the tensor perturbations during inflation with non-linear tensor interactions. We first obtain the Lindblad terms generated by non-linear interactions by tracing out unobservable sub-horizon modes. Then we calculate explicitly the reduced density matrix for the super-horizon modes, and show that the probability of maintaining the unitarity of the squeezed state decreases in time. The decreased probability is transferred to other elements of the reduced density matrix including off-diagonal ones, so the evolution of the reduced density matrix describes the quantum-to-classical transition of the tensor perturbations. This is different from the classicality accomplished by the squeezed state, the suppression of the non-commutative effect, which is originated from the quadratic, linear interaction, and also maintains the unitarity. The quantum-to-classical transition occurs within 5 - 10 e-folds, faster than the curvature perturbation.

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arXiv2018

Implications of the dark axion portal for the muon g-2, B-factories, fixed target neutrino experiments and beam dumps

The dark axion portal is a recently introduced portal between the standard model and the dark sector. It connects both the dark photon and the axion (or axion-like particle) to the photon simultaneously through an anomaly triangle. While the vector portal and the axion portal have been popular venues to search for the dark photon and axion, respectively, the new portal provides new detection channels if they coexist. The dark axion portal is not a result of the simple combination of the two portals, and its value is not determined by the other portal values; it should be tested independently. In this paper, we discuss implications of the new portal for the leptonic g-2, B-factories, fixed target neutrino experiments, and beam dumps. We provide the model-independent constraints on the axion-photon-dark photon coupling and discuss the sensitivities of the recently activated Belle-II experiment, which will play an important role in testing the new portal.

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arXiv2018

Electromagnetic Duality and the Electric Memory Effect

We study large gauge transformations for soft photons in quantum electrodynamics which, together with the helicity operator, form an ISO(2) algebra. We show that the two non-compact generators of the ISO(2) algebra correspond respectively to the residual gauge symmetry and its electromagnetic dual gauge symmetry that emerge at null infinity. The former is helicity universal (electric in nature) while the latter is helicity distinguishing (magnetic in nature). Thus, the conventional large gauge transformation is electric in nature, and is naturally associated with a scalar potential. We suggest that the electric Aharonov-Bohm effect is a direct measure for the electromagnetic memory arising from large gauge transformations.

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arXiv2018

Consistency relations in multi-field inflation

We study the consequences of spatial coordinate transformation in multi-field inflation. Among the spontaneously broken de Sitter isometries, only dilatation in the comoving gauge preserves the form of the metric and thus results in quantum-protected Slavnov-Taylor identities. We derive the corresponding consistency relations between correlation functions of cosmological perturbations in two different ways, by the connected and one-particle-irreducible Green's functions. The lowest-order consistency relations are explicitly given, and we find that even in multi-field inflation the consistency relations in the soft limit are independent of the detail of the matter sector.

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arXiv2017

Large gauge transformation and little group for soft photons

Recently, large gauge transformation (LGT), the residual gauge symmetry after gauge fixing that survives at null infinity, has drawn much attention concerning soft theorems and the memory effect. We point out that LGT charges in quantum electrodynamics are in fact one of non-compact generators of the two dimensional Euclidean group. Moreover, by comparing two equivalent descriptions of gauge transformation, we suggest that LGT is simply another way of describing the gauged little group for massless soft photons.

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arXiv2017

SIMP dark matter and its cosmic abundances

We give a review on the thermal average of the annihilation cross-sections for $3\rightarrow 2$ and general higher-order processes. Thermal average of higher order annihilations highly depend on the velocity of dark matter, especially, for the case with resonance poles. We show such examples for scalar dark matter in gauged $Z_3$ models.

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arXiv2017

Memory in de Sitter space and BMS-like supertranslations

It is well known that the memory effect in flat spacetime is parametrized by the BMS supertranslation. We investigate the relation between the memory effect and diffeomorphism in de Sitter spacetime. We find that gravitational memory is parametrized by a BMS-like supertranslation in the static patch of de Sitter spacetime. We also show a diffeomorphism that corresponds to gravitational memory in the Poincare/cosmological patch. Our method does not need to assume the separation between the source and the detector to be small compared with the Hubble radius, and can potentially be applicable to other FLRW universes, as well as "ordinary memory" mediated by massive messenger particles.

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arXiv2017

Cosmic abundances of SIMP dark matter

Thermal production of light dark matter with sub-GeV scale mass can be attributed to $3\rightarrow 2$ self-annihilation processes. We consider the thermal average for annihilation cross sections of dark matter at $3\rightarrow 2$ and general higher-order interactions. A correct thermal average for initial dark matter particles is important, in particular, for annihilation cross sections with overall velocity dependence and/or resonance poles. We apply our general results to benchmark models for SIMP dark matter and discuss the effects of the resonance pole in determining the relic density.

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arXiv2017

Gauge see-saw: A mechanism for a light gauge boson

There has been rapidly growing interest in the past decade in a new gauge boson which is considerably lighter than the standard model Z boson. A well-known example of this kind is the so-called dark photon, and it is actively searched for in various experiments nowadays. It would be puzzling to have a new gauge boson which is neither massless nor electroweak scale, but possesses a rather small yet nonzero mass. We present a mechanism that can provide a light gauge boson as a result of a mass matrix diagonalization.

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arXiv2016

Investigating the jet activity accompanying the production at the LHC of a massive scalar particle decaying into photons

We study the jet activity that accompanies the production by gluon fusion of a new physics scalar particle decaying into photons at the LHC. In the considered scenarios, both the production and decay mechanisms are governed by loop-induced interactions involving a heavy colored state. We show that the presence of large new physics contributions to the inclusive diphoton invariant-mass spectrum always implies a significant production rate of non-standard diphoton events containing extra hard jets. We investigate the existence of possible handles that could provide a way to obtain information on the underlying physics behind the scalar resonance, and this in a wide mass window.

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