Higgs mass and gravity waves in standard model false vacuum inflation

Abstract

In previous publications we have proposed that inflation can be realized in a second minimum of the standard model Higgs potential at energy scales of about 1 0 16 GeV , if the minimum is not too deep and if a mechanism which allows a transition to the radiation dominated era can be found. This is provided, e.g., by scalar-tensor gravity models or hybrid models. Using such ideas we had predicted the Higgs boson mass to be of about 126 ± 3 GeV , which has been confirmed by the LHC, and that a possibly measurable amount of gravity waves should be produced. Using more refined recent theoretical calculations of the renormalization group equations we show that such scenario has the right scale of inflation only for small Higgs mass, lower than about 124 GeV, otherwise gravity waves are overproduced. The precise value is subject to some theoretical error and to experimental errors on the determination of the strong coupling constant. Finally we show that introducing a moderately large nonminimal coupling for the Higgs field the bound can shift to larger values and be reconciled with the LHC measurements of the Higgs mass.