Motivated by the seesaw mechanism for neutrinos which naturally generates small neutrino masses, we explore how a small grand-unified-theory-scale mixing between the standard model Higgs boson and an otherwise massless hidden sector scalar can naturally generate a small mass and vacuum expectation value for the new scalar which produces a false vacuum energy density contribution comparable to that of the observed dark energy dominating the current expansion of the Universe. This provides a simple and natural mechanism for producing the correct scale for dark energy, even if it does not address the long-standing question of why much larger dark energy contributions are not produced from the visible sector. The new scalar produces no discernible signatures in existing terrestrial experiments so that one may have to rely on other cosmological tests of this idea.
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- Higgs Seesaw Mechanism as a Source for Dark Energy
- Krauss, Lawrence (Author)
- Dent, James B. (Author)
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
- Digital object identifier: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.061802
- Identifier TypeInternational standard serial numberIdentifier Value1079-7114
- Identifier TypeInternational standard serial numberIdentifier Value0031-9007
- Copyright (2013) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. along with the following message: The following article appeared in (Higgs Seesaw Mechanism as a Source for Dark Energy. Physical Review Letters, 111(6)) and may be found at (10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.061802), opens in a new window.
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Krauss, L. M., & Dent, J. B. (2013). Higgs Seesaw Mechanism as a Source for Dark Energy. Physical Review Letters, 111(6), 061802. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.061802