Higgs inflation still alive

The observed value of the Higgs mass indicates that the Higgs potential becomes small and flat at the scale around $10^{17}$GeV. Having this fact in mind, we reconsider the Higgs inflation scenario proposed by Bezrukov and Shaposhnikov. It turns out that the non-minimal coupling $\xi$ of the Higgs-squared to the Ricci scalar can be smaller than ten. For example, $\xi=7$ corresponds to the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r\simeq0.2$, which is consistent with the recent observation by BICEP2.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; Version to appear on Physical Review Letters, footnotes added and expanded, references added, note added (v2

Higgs inflation from Standard Model criticality

The observed Higgs mass $M_H=125.9\pm0.4$GeV leads to the criticality of the Standard Model, that is, the Higgs potential becomes flat around the scale $10^{17\text{--}18}$GeV for the top mass $171.3$GeV. Earlier we have proposed a Higgs inflation scenario in which this criticality plays a crucial role. In this paper, we investigate detailed cosmological predictions of this scenario in light of the latest Planck and BICEP2 results. We find that this scenario can be consistent with the constraint from the running index too. We also compute the Higgs one-loop effective potential including the Higgs portal scalar dark matter, with the two-loop renormalization group equations and find a constraint on the coupling between Higgs and dark matter depending on the inflationary parameters.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures; Accepted by PRD(v2

Notes on High Energy Limit of Bosonic Closed String Scattering Amplitudes

We study bosonic closed string scattering amplitudes in the high-energy limit. We find that the methods of decoupling of high-energy zero-norm states and the high-energy Virasoro constraints, which were adopted in the previous works to calculate the ratios among high-energy open string scattering amplitudes of different string states, persist for the case of closed string. However, we clarify the previous saddle-point calculation for high-energy open string scattering amplitudes and claim that only (t,u) channel of the amplitudes is suitable for saddle-point calculation. We then discuss three evidences to show that saddle-point calculation for high-energy closed string scattering amplitudes is not reliable. By using the relation of tree-level closed and open string scattering amplitudes of Kawai, Lewellen and Tye (KLT), we calculate the high-energy closed string scattering amplitudes for arbitrary mass levels. For the case of high-energy closed string four-tachyon amplitude, our result differs from the previous one of Gross and Mende, which is NOT consistent with KLT formula, by an oscillating factor.Comment: 14 pages, no figure. Equations and Conclusion adde

Regge Closed String Scattering and its Implication on Fixed angle Closed String Scattering

We calculate the complete closed string high energy scattering amplitudes (HSA) in the Regge regime for arbitrary mass levels. As an application, we deduce the complete ratios among closed string HSA in the fixed angle regime by using Stirling number identities. These results are in contrast with the incomplete set of closed string HSA in the fixed angle regime calculated previously. The complete forms of the fixed angle amplitudes, and hence the ratios, were not calculable previously without the input of zero-norm state calculation. This is mainly due to the lack of saddle point in the fixed angle closed string calculation.Comment: 10 pages. v2: typos correcte

New solutions in 3D gravity

We study gravitational theory in 1+2 spacetime dimensions which is determined by the Lagrangian constructed as a sum of the Einstein-Hilbert term plus the two (translational and rotational) gravitational Chern-Simons terms. When the corresponding coupling constants vanish, we are left with the purely Einstein theory of gravity. We obtain new exact solutions for the gravitational field equations with the nontrivial material sources. Special attention is paid to plane-fronted gravitational waves (in case of the Maxwell field source) and to the circularly symmetric as well as the anisotropic cosmological solutions which arise for the ideal fluid matter source.Comment: Revtex, 21 pages, no figure

Stokes Phenomena and Quantum Integrability in Non-critical String/M Theory

We study Stokes phenomena of the k \times k isomonodromy systems with an arbitrary Poincar\'e index r, especially which correspond to the fractional-superstring (or parafermionic-string) multi-critical points (\hat p,\hat q)=(1,r-1) in the k-cut two-matrix models. Investigation of this system is important for the purpose of figuring out the non-critical version of M theory which was proposed to be the strong-coupling dual of fractional superstring theory as a two-matrix model with an infinite number of cuts. Surprisingly the multi-cut boundary-condition recursion equations have a universal form among the various multi-cut critical points, and this enables us to show explicit solutions of Stokes multipliers in quite wide classes of (k,r). Although these critical points almost break the intrinsic Z_k symmetry of the multi-cut two-matrix models, this feature makes manifest a connection between the multi-cut boundary-condition recursion equations and the structures of quantum integrable systems. In particular, it is uncovered that the Stokes multipliers satisfy multiple Hirota equations (i.e. multiple T-systems). Therefore our result provides a large extension of the ODE/IM correspondence to the general isomonodromy ODE systems endowed with the multi-cut boundary conditions. We also comment about a possibility that N=2 QFT of Cecotti-Vafa would be "topological series" in non-critical M theory equipped with a single quantum integrability.Comment: 43 pages, 3 figures; v2:references and comments added (footnote 24