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PIRSA:13120058

Video URL

https://pirsa.org/13120058

BBN and the Unnatural Weak Scale

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

David Pinner University of California, Berkeley

Talk numberPIRSA:13120058
DOI10.48660/13120058
Source RepositoryPIRSA
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.