Probing radiative electroweak symmetry breaking with colliders and gravitational waves

Abstract

Radiative symmetry breaking provides an appealing explanation for electroweak symmetry breaking and addresses the hierarchy problem. We present a comprehensive phenomenological study of this scenario, focusing on its key feature: the logarithmic-shaped potential. This potential gives rise to a relatively light scalar boson that mixes with the Higgs boson and leads to first-order phase transitions (FOPTs) in the early Universe. Our study includes providing exact and analytical solutions for the vacuum structure and scalar interactions, classifying four patterns of cosmic thermal history, and calculating the supercooled FOPT and gravitational waves (GWs). A detailed treatment of the FOPT dynamics reveals that an ultra-supercooled FOPT does not always imply strong GW signals, due to its short duration. By combining future collider and GW experiments, we can probe the conformal symmetry breaking scales up to 105–108 GeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024