The Tachyonic Higgs and the Inflationary Universe

by Bibhushan Shakya (T (Cosmology))

Monday 13 Mar 2023, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Berlin

SR2

The Standard Model Higgs becomes tachyonic at high energy scales according to current measurements. This unstable regime of the Higgs potential can be realized in the early Universe during high scale inflation, potentially with catastrophic consequences. In this talk, we will discuss a crucial inherent feature of such configurations that has so far remained ignored: Higgs particle production out of vacuum induced by the rapidly evolving Higgs field, which gets exponentially enhanced due to the tachyonic instability. We will discuss various theoretical and observational implications of this effect.