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Cosmological Signature of the Standard Model Higgs Vacuum Instability: Primordial Black Holes as Dark Matter

J. R. Espinosa, D. Racco, and A. Riotto
Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 121301 – Published 23 March 2018
Physics logo See Synopsis: Cosmic Instability Could Have Created Dark Matter

Abstract

For the current central values of the Higgs boson and top quark masses, the standard model Higgs potential develops an instability at a scale of the order of 1011GeV. We show that a cosmological signature of such instability could be dark matter in the form of primordial black holes seeded by Higgs fluctuations during inflation. The existence of dark matter might not require physics beyond the standard model.

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  • Received 7 November 2017
  • Revised 4 January 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.121301

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Gravitation, Cosmology & AstrophysicsParticles & Fields

Synopsis

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Cosmic Instability Could Have Created Dark Matter

Published 23 March 2018

A proposed instability in the Higgs field could have seeded the Universe with primordial black holes that now serve as dark matter.

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Authors & Affiliations

J. R. Espinosa1,2, D. Racco3, and A. Riotto3

  • 1Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
  • 2ICREA, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig de Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
  • 3Département de Physique Théorique and Centre for Astroparticle Physics (CAP), Université de Genève, 24 quai E. Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland

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Issue

Vol. 120, Iss. 12 — 23 March 2018

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