EPT Seminar - Bibhushan Shakya, Johns Hopkins University

Speaker: Bibhushan Shakya, Johns Hopkins University

Title: Did our Universe Tunnel out of the Wrong Higgs Vacuum?

Abstract: It is well known that the Standard Model Higgs field
features a deeper, more stable minimum at large field values. While it
is possible that our Universe began and remained in the electroweak
vacuum at all times, this scenario is extremely fine-tuned from the
point of view of initial conditions; the most natural initial state
corresponds to our Universe initialized in the more stable but "wrong"
Higgs vacuum, and subsequently driven dynamically to the weak scale
vacuum during reheating. This talk will explore various aspects of
this configuration, such as a symmetry-restoring first-order phase
transition and implications for high scale inflation.

EPT Zoom link: https://umd.zoom.us/j/98156909829?pwd=HKSCcZchnrAY9ncEKmUoW47Cve7XAJ.1
Meeting ID: 981 5690 9829
Passcode: UMDEPT