PIRSA:13120058

BBN and the Unnatural Weak Scale

Pinner, D. (2013). BBN and the Unnatural Weak Scale. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/13120058

Pinner, David. BBN and the Unnatural Weak Scale. Perimeter Institute, Dec. 05, 2013, https://pirsa.org/13120058 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:13120058,
            doi = {10.48660/13120058},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/13120058},
            author = {Pinner, David},
            keywords = {Particle Physics},
            language = {en},
            title = {BBN and the Unnatural Weak Scale},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2013},
            month = {dec},
            note = {PIRSA:13120058 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

David Pinner University of California, Berkeley

DOI 10.48660/13120058
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

The discovery of a perturbatively-coupled, 125 GeV Higgs, together with the absence of LHC signals for supersymmetry, places the principle of naturalness under tension. In this talk I will discuss the possibility that the weak scale is unnatural, with its value determined environmentally in the landscape. In particular, this environmental selection may be driven by BBN: as the weak scale is increased, the abundance of Hydrogen in the early universe is rapidly depleted. That our own universe contains an O(1) fraction of primordial Helium arises as a conspiracy among the weak scale, the neutron-proton mass difference, and the planck scale.