Comments on the Hierarchy Problem in Effective Theories

Understand

We discuss aspects of the hierarchy problem in effective theories with light scalars and a large, physical ultraviolet (UV) cutoff.

• We make two main points: (1) The (naive) fine-tuning observed in an effective theory does not automatically imply that the UV completion is fine tuned.
• Instead, it gives a type of upper bound on the severity of the actual tuning in the UV completion; the actual tuning can be less severe than the naive tuning or even non-existent.
• (2) Within an effective theory, there appear to be two types of parameter relations that can alleviate the sensitivity of the scalar mass to the cutoff --- relationships among dimensionless couplings or relationships among dimensionful parameters.