Higgs vacua with potential barriers

Scenarios in which the Higgs vacuum arises radiatively and is separated from the origin by a potential barrier at zero temperature are known to be attainable in models with extra singlet scalars, which in the limit of zero barrier height give rise to Coleman-Weinberg realizations of electroweak-symmetry breaking. However, this requires large values of Higgs-portal couplings or a large number N of singlets. This is quantified in detail by considering, for varying N, the full two-loop effective potential at zero temperature, as well as finite-temperature effects including the dominant two-loop corrections due to the singlets. Despite the large couplings, two-loop effects near the electroweak scale are under control, and actually better behaved in models with larger couplings yet fewer singlets. Strong first-order phase transitions are guaranteed even in the Coleman-Weinberg scenarios. Cubic Higgs couplings and Higgs associated-production cross sections exhibit deviations from the standard model predictions which could be probed at a linear collider.