On the Spontaneous CP Breaking in the Higgs Sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We revise a recently proposed mechanism for spontaneous CP breaking at finite temperature in the Higgs sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, based on the contribution of squarks, charginos and neutralinos to the one-loop effective potential. We have included plasma effects for all bosons and added the contribution of neutral scalar and charged Higgses. While the former have little effect, the latter provides very strong extra constraints on the parameter space and change drastically the previous results. We find that CP can be spontaneously broken at the critical temperature of the electroweak phase transition without any fine-tuning in the parameter space.Comment: 9 pages, LATEX, 3 appended postscript figures, IEM-FT-76/9

The Higgs as a Portal to Plasmon-like Unparticle Excitations

A renormalizable coupling between the Higgs and a scalar unparticle operator O_U of non-integer dimension d_U<2 triggers, after electroweak symmetry breaking, an infrared divergent vacuum expectation value for O_U. Such IR divergence should be tamed before any phenomenological implications of the Higgs-unparticle interplay can be drawn. In this paper we present a novel mechanism to cure that IR divergence through (scale-invariant) unparticle self-interactions, which has properties qualitatively different from the mechanism considered previously. Besides finding a mass gap in the unparticle continuum we also find an unparticle pole reminiscent of a plasmon resonance. Such unparticle features could be explored experimentally through their mixing with the Higgs boson.Comment: 12 LaTeX pages, 2 figure

Upper Bounds on the Lightest Higgs Boson Mass in General Supersymmetric Standard Models

In a general supersymmetric standard model there is an upper bound $m_h$ on the tree level mass of the $CP=+1$ lightest Higgs boson which depends on the electroweak scale, $\tan \beta$ and the gauge and Yukawa couplings of the theory. When radiative corrections are included, the allowed region in the $(m_h,m_t)$ plane depends on the scale $\Lambda$, below which the theory remains perturbative, and the supersymmetry breaking scale $\Lambda_s$, that we fix to $1\ TeV$. In the minimal model with $\Lambda=10^{16}\ GeV$: $m_h<130\ GeV$and$m_t<185\ GeV$. In non-minimal models with an arbitrary number of gauge singlets and$\Lambda=10^{16}\ GeV$:$m_h<145\ GeV$and$m_t<185\ GeV$. We also consider supersymmetric standard models with arbitrary Higgs sectors. For models whose couplings saturate the scale$\Lambda=10^{16}\ GeV$we find$m_h<155\ GeV$and$m_t<190\ GeV$. As one pushes the saturation scale$\Lambda$down to$\Lambda_s$, the bounds on$m_h$and$m_t$increase. For instance, in models with$\Lambda=10\ TeV$, the upper bounds for$m_h$and$m_t$go to$415\ GeV$and$385\ GeV$, respectively.Comment: 13 pages, latex, IEM-FT-64/92 (5 postscript figures availables upon request

Higgs boson bounds in non-minimal supersymmetric standard models

In the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), when radiative corrections are included, the mass of the $CP=+1$ lightest Higgs boson is bounded by $\sim 110\ GeV$ for $m_t < 150\ GeV$ and a scale of supersymmetry breaking $\sim\ 1\ TeV$. In non-minimal supersymmetric standard models (NMSSM) upper bounds on the mass of the corresponding scalar Higgs boson arise if the theory is required to remain perturbative up to scales $\gg G_F^{-1/2}$. We have computed those bounds for two illustrative NMSSM: i) A model with an arbitrary number of gauge singlets; ii) A model with three $SU(2)_L$ triplets with $Y=0,\pm 1$. We have integrated numerically the corresponding renormalization group equations (RGE), including the top and bottom quark Yukawa couplings, and added one-loop radiative corrections. For $m_t > 91\ GeV$ the absolute bounds are $\sim 140\ GeV$ for both models.Comment: 8 pages, (Talk presented at the XXVI INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS, August 6-12, 1992, Dallas), latex, IEM-FT-60/92, 3 figures (available by Fax upon request

Black holes and Higgs stability

We study the effect of primordial black holes on the classical rate of nucleation of AdS regions within the standard electroweak vacuum. We find that the energy barrier for transitions to the new vacuum, which characterizes the exponential suppression of the nucleation rate, can be reduced significantly in the black-hole background. A precise analysis is required in order to determine whether the the existence of primordial black holes is compatible with the form of the Higgs potential at high temperature or density in the Standard Model or its extensions.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figures, conclusions expanded, to appear in JCA

Complete two-loop effective potential approximation to the lightest Higgs scalar boson mass in supersymmetry

I present a method for accurately calculating the pole mass of the lightest Higgs scalar boson in supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, using a mass-independent renormalization scheme. The Higgs scalar self-energies are approximated by supplementing the exact one-loop results with the second derivatives of the complete two-loop effective potential in Landau gauge. I discuss the dependence of this approximation on the choice of renormalization scale, and note the existence of particularly poor choices which fortunately can be easily identified and avoided. For typical input parameters, the variation in the calculated Higgs mass over a wide range of renormalization scales is found to be of order a few hundred MeV or less, and is significantly improved over previous approximations.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. References added, sample test model parameters listed, minor wording change

Dominant Two-Loop Corrections to the MSSM Finite Temperature Effective Potential

We show that two-loop corrections to the finite temperature effective potential in the MSSM can have a dramatic effect on the strength of the electroweak phase transition, making it more strongly first order. The change in the order parameter $v/T_c$ can be as large as 75\% of the one-loop daisy improved result. This effect can be decisive to widen the region in parameter space where erasure of the created baryons by sphaleron processes after the transition is suppressed and hence, where electroweak baryogenesis might be successful. We find an allowed region with \tan\beta\simlt 4.5 and a Higgs boson with standard couplings and mass below $80\ GeV$ within the reach of LEP II.Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX. 4 postscript figure

Resummation Methods at Finite Temperature: The Tadpole Way

We examine several resummation methods for computing higher order corrections to the finite temperature effective potential, in the context of a scalar $\phi^4$ theory. We show by explicit calculation to four loops that dressing the propagator, not the vertex, of the one-loop tadpole correctly counts ``daisy'' and ``super-daisy'' diagrams.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, CALT-68-1858, HUTP-93-A011, EFI-93-2

Standard Model stability bounds for new physics within LHC reach

We analyse the stability lower bounds on the Standard Model Higgs mass by carefully controlling the scale independence of the effective potential. We include resummed leading and next-to-leading-log corrections, and physical pole masses for the Higgs boson, M_H, and the top-quark, M_t. Particular attention is devoted to the cases where the scale of new physics \Lambda is within LHC reach, i.e. \Lambda\leq 10 TeV, which have been the object of recent controversial results. We clarify the origin of discrepancies and confirm our earlier results within the error of our previous estimate. In particular for \Lambda=1 TeV we find that M_H[GeV]>52+0.64(M_t[GeV]-175)-0.50\frac{\alpha_s(M_Z)-0.118}{0.006}. For fixed values of M_t and \alpha_s(M_Z), the error from higher effects, as the lack of exact scale invariance of the effective potential and higher-order radiative corrections, is conservatively estimated to be \simlt 5 GeV.Comment: 17 pages, latex + psfig.sty, 4 figure

String-mediated electroweak baryogenesis: a critical analysis

We study the scenario of electroweak baryogenesis mediated by nonsuperconducting cosmic strings. This idea relies upon electroweak symmetry being restored in a region around the core of the topological defect so that, within this region, the rate of baryon number violation is enhanced. We compute numerically how effectively baryon number is violated along a cosmic string, at an epoch when the baryon number violation rate elsewhere is negligible. We show that B-violation along nonsuperconducting strings is quite inefficient. When proper accounting is taken of the velocity dependence of the baryon number production by strings, it proves too small to explain the observed abundance by at least ten orders of magnitude, whether the strings are in the friction dominated or the scaling regime.We study the scenario of electroweak baryogenesis mediated by nonsuperconducting cosmic strings. This idea relies upon electroweak symmetry being restored in a region around the core of the topological defect so that, within this region, the rate of baryon number violation is enhanced. We compute numerically how effectively baryon number is violated along a cosmic string, at an epoch when the baryon number violation rate elsewhere is negligible. We show that B-violation along nonsuperconducting strings is quite inefficient. When proper accounting is taken of the velocity dependence of the baryon number production by strings, it proves too small to explain the observed abundance by at least ten orders of magnitude, whether the strings are in the friction dominated or the scaling regime