Higgs instantons in the Standard Model

粒子物理学的标准模型预测，对于粒子质量的最佳估计，目前的真空态处于亚稳态，最终将衰变到真正的负能量基态。这一过程用半经典瞬子解来描述。这个项目的目的是在宇宙常数和与引力的非最小耦合存在的情况下找到这些瞬子，并研究引力和量子修正的影响。这将使我们更好地理解这一过程的速度，以及它如何依赖于理论的参数，这样就有可能限制它们。

The Standard Model of particle physics predicts that, for the best estimates for the particle masses, the current vacuum state in metastable, and that eventually it will decay into to true negative-energy ground state. This process is described by semiclassical instanton solutions. The aim of this project is to find these instantons in the presence of a cosmological constant and a non-minimal coupling to gravity, and investigate the effects of gravity and quantum corrections. This will give a better understanding of the rate of this process and how it depends on the parameters of the theory, and that way it makes it possible to constrain them.