Addressing six standard model problems with Technically Natural Higgs models

Abstract

Abstract We aim to study the potential of the recently proposed model framework, called Technically Natural Higgs (TNH), in addressing six fundamental problems in particle physics and cosmology. These questions encompass the electroweak (EW) naturalness problem, neutrino mass generation, nature of the inflaton, the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem, origin of dark matter (DM) and the strong CP problem. We investigate various solutions within the TNH framework for three inflation scenarios — Higgs, Starobinsky and scale-independent inflation. In the minimal TNH model, the Higgs is a mixture of an elementary and a composite state, with a compositeness scale far exceeding the EW scale. Traditionally, this has required an unnatural small vacuum misalignment, but in the TNH framework a novel mechanism enables a technically natural large compositeness scale, even up to the Planck scale. In this model framework, we demonstrate that a scale-invariant version of the minimal TNH model, featuring a special energy scale of around $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (1012) GeV, loop-induced by the inflaton, simultaneously yields a technically natural 125-GeV Higgs boson, scotogenic neutrinos, a scale-invariant inflaton and a QCD axion DM candidate. These components dynamically generate the Planck scale and collectively have the potential to address all six open questions.