Custodial scalars and Higgs branch
Abstract
We show that, for most gauged scalar fields, the scalar potential can be systematically organised into an ordered tree of increasingly symmetric operators. The intermediary global symmetries represented in the tree allow at tree-level a subset of the scalar field components, the custodial scalars, to be technically lighter than the scalar mass scale, or even exactly massless (so-called accidents). We further demonstrate, using the notion of moment maps, that such structure can be related to the Higgs branch of supersymmetric theories, allowing the use of powerful symplectic geometry tools in studying the vacuum of non-supersymmetric scalar potentials. We present various applications, from an example of a non-abelian accident to a Standard Model-like Higgs sector generated from custodial scalars.
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BibTeX
@misc{darme2026custodial,
title = {{Custodial scalars and Higgs branch}},
author = {Luc Darmé and Baptiste Filoche and Sebastian Monath},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.36081},
eprint = {2610.36081},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36081},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Custodial scalars and Higgs branch
AU - Luc Darmé
AU - Baptiste Filoche
AU - Sebastian Monath
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.36081
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36081
AB - We show that, for most gauged scalar fields, the scalar potential can be systematically organised into an ordered tree of increasingly symmetric operators. The intermediary global symmetries represented in the tree allow at tree-level a subset of the scalar field components, the custodial scalars, to be technically lighter than the scalar mass scale, or even exactly massless (so-called accidents). We further demonstrate, using the notion of moment maps, that such structure can be related to the Higgs branch of supersymmetric theories, allowing the use of powerful symplectic geometry tools in studying the vacuum of non-supersymmetric scalar potentials. We present various applications, from an example of a non-abelian accident to a Standard Model-like Higgs sector generated from custodial scalars.
ER -