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← the claim it bears on

A line of reasoning from premises to a conclusion. Like a claim, it belongs to no one who makes it.constitution →

Running of the Higgs quartic coupling

This argument, if it holds, bears in favour of the claim.constitution →The Standard Model electroweak vacuum is metastable rather than absolutely stable.

The argument

Because linked claim, the Standard Model Higgs potential develops a minimum deeper than the electroweak vacuum at large field values, so the present vacuum can decay by quantum tunnelling and is therefore metastable rather than absolutely stable. This inference holds given that linked claim, since the running of the coupling is computed by extrapolating the pure Standard Model to those scales.

Does it work?

Not yet evaluated.

Premises

Where it is made

Passages where sources make, criticize or mention this argument. They record where it appears, not how strong it is, and none has precedence over another.

No source is recorded as making it.

Earlier ratings

  • Jul 28, 2026

    Granting its premises, the inference is sound: a quartic coupling that turns negative implies a minimum deeper than the electroweak vacuum and hence metastability. The computational premise, linked claim, is now verified on direct examination of the next-to-next-to-leading-order literature, so the argument's weight falls almost entirely on linked claim, an open question that experiment cannot test over most of its range and that known Standard Model gaps give real reason to doubt. The argument therefore establishes metastability as a property of the Standard Model's own potential, conditional on that untested extrapolation; a further caveat is that "central parameter values" does quiet work, since a top pole mass about one standard deviation lower yields absolute stability.

  • Jul 19, 2026

    Granting its premises, the inference is sound: a quartic coupling that turns negative implies a minimum deeper than the electroweak vacuum and hence metastability. The computational premise, linked claim, is robust and repeatedly confirmed for central parameter values, so the argument's weight falls almost entirely on linked claim, now assessed as an open question that experiment cannot test over most of its range and that known Standard Model gaps give real reason to doubt. The argument therefore establishes metastability as a property of the Standard Model's own potential, conditional on that untested extrapolation; a further caveat is that "central parameter values" does quiet work, since a top pole mass about one standard deviation lower yields absolute stability.

  • Jul 19, 2026

    Granting its premises, the inference is sound: a quartic coupling that turns negative implies a minimum deeper than the electroweak vacuum and hence metastability. The computational premise, linked claim, is robust and repeatedly confirmed for central parameter values, so the argument's weight falls almost entirely on linked claim, an extrapolation over eight orders of magnitude in energy that cannot currently be tested. The caveat is that "central parameter values" does the quiet work: the same calculation with a top pole mass about one standard deviation lower yields absolute stability.

  • Jul 19, 2026

    Granting its premises, the inference is sound: a quartic coupling that turns negative implies a deeper minimum and hence metastability. The computational premise, linked claim, is robust and repeatedly confirmed for central parameter values, so the argument's weight falls almost entirely on linked claim, an extrapolation over eight orders of magnitude in energy that cannot currently be tested. The caveat is that "central parameter values" does the quiet work: the same calculation with a top mass about one standard deviation lower yields absolute stability.

Running of the Higgs quartic coupling · Minerval