Topological Higgs inflation: The origin of the Standard Model criticality

Understand

The measured values of the Higgs and top masses and of the strong gauge coupling constant point to the near-criticality of the Standard Model, where two vacua at the electroweak and Planck scales are quasi-degenerate.

• We argue that the criticality is required by the occurrence of an eternal topological inflation induced by the Higgs potential.
• The role of this inflation is to continuously create sufficiently flat and homogeneous Universe, providing the necessary initial condition for the subsequent slow-roll inflation that generates the density perturbations of the right magnitude.
• While the condition for the topological Higgs inflation is only marginally satisfied in the Standard Model, it can be readily satisfied if one introduces the right-handed neutrinos and/or the non-minimal coupling to gravity; currently unknown quantum gravity corrections to the potential may also help.