Light Higgs boson from multi-phase criticality in dynamical symmetry breaking

The Coleman-Weinberg mechanism can realise different phases of dynamical symmetry breaking. In each phase a combination of scalars, corresponding to the pseudo-Goldstone boson of scale invariance, has a loop-suppressed mass. We show that additional scalars, beyond the pseudo-Goldstone bosons, can become light at critical points in the parameter space where two different phases co-exist. We present a minimal implementation of the mechanism in multi-scalar models, detailing how loop-suppressed masses and mixings can be computed. We discuss realisations of the resulting multi-phase criticality principle and its relevance to the case of the Higgs boson. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

The Coleman-Weinberg mechanism can achieve dynamical symmetry breaking in different phases, where some scalars have loop-suppressed mass. Additional scalars beyond the pseudo-Goldstone bosons may become light at critical points in the parameter space. This mechanism's minimal implementation in multi-scalar models shows how loop-suppressed masses and mixings can be computed, with relevance to the Higgs boson.