Gravity, scale invariance and the hierarchy problem
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Andrey Shkerin; M. Shaposhnikov
- Source
- Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol 2018, Iss 10, Pp 1-43 (2018)
Journal of High Energy Physics
- Subject
- flat
High Energy Physics - Theory
Nuclear and High Energy Physics
General relativity
spontaneous symmetry-breaking
standard model
FOS: Physical sciences
Conformal and W Symmetry
01 natural sciences
Gravitation
Theoretical physics
0103 physical sciences
lcsh:Nuclear and particle physics. Atomic energy. Radioactivity
criticality
010306 general physics
Physics
open inflation
Toy model
010308 nuclear & particles physics
Hierarchy problem
space
Solitons Monopoles and Instantons
field equations
tensor
Higgs field
Standard Model (mathematical formulation)
High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
Nonperturbative Effects
quantum-gravity
lcsh:QC770-798
renormalization-group
Electroweak scale
Vacuum expectation value
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1029-8479
Combining the quantum scale invariance with the absence of new degrees of freedom above the electroweak scale leads to stability of the latter against perturbative quantum corrections. Nevertheless, the hierarchy between the weak and the Planck scales remains unexplained. We argue that this hierarchy can be generated by a non-perturbative effect relating the low energy and the Planck-scale physics. The effect is manifested in the existence of an instanton configuration contributing to the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field. We analyze such configurations in several toy models and in a phenomenologically viable theory encompassing the Standard Model and General Relativity in a scale-invariant way. Dynamical gravity and a non-minimal coupling of it to the Higgs field play a crucial role in the mechanism.
42 pages, 11 figures. v2: published version