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B. Patla, R. J. Nemiroff (Michigan Tech.)
The observed dark energy in the universe might give particles inertial mass. We investigate one realization of this idea, that the dark energy field might be a decayed scalar component of a scalar field in the early universe that creates inertial mass through spontaneous symmetry breaking, e.g. a Higgs field. To investigate this possibility, the cosmological Friedmann equation of energy balance is augmented in a standard way to incorporate a minimally coupled cosmological Higgs. For epochs where the expansion of the universe is driven by matter and radiation and not the scalar field, the observed hidden nature of the Higgs field can be codified into a single differential equation that we call the ``hidden higgs" condition. The resulting differential equation is solved for the time dependant scalar field and a simple and interesting solution is found analytically. Such a Higgs field decays from Planck scale energies rapidly and approximately exponentially from onset, leaving only the initially negligible constant term of the potential as a final cosmological constant. Such evolution replaces the hierarchy problem with the problem of explaining why such evolution is physically justified, leaving the coincidence problem still unresolved.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.