4 research outputs found
Big Bang nucleosynthesis and cosmic microwave background constraints on the time variation of the Higgs vacuum expectation value
We derive constraints on the time variation of the Higgs vacuum expectation
value through the effects on Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the
cosmic microwave background (CMB). In the former case, we include the
(previously-neglected) effect of the change in the deuteron binding energy,
which alters both the He and deuterium abundances significantly. We find
that the current BBN limits on the relative change in \higgs are , where the
exact limits depend on the model we choose for the dependence of the deuteron
binding energy on \higgs.The limits from the current CMB data are much weaker.Comment: 5 pages including 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.