Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 8, 2026

Setting Limits on Supersymmetry Using Simplified Models
Published on: November 15, 2013
Higgs seesaw mechanism as a source for dark energy
Lawrence M Krauss1, James B Dent
1School of Earth and Space Exploration and Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1404, USA. krauss@asu.edu
Abstract:
Motivated by the seesaw mechanism for neutrinos which naturally generates small neutrino masses, we explore how a small grand-unified-theory-scale mixing between the standard model Higgs boson and an otherwise massless hidden sector scalar can naturally generate a small mass and vacuum expectation value for the new scalar which produces a false vacuum energy density contribution comparable to that of the observed dark energy dominating the current expansion of the Universe. This provides a simple and natural mechanism for producing the correct scale for dark energy, even if it does not address the long-standing question of why much larger dark energy contributions are not produced from the visible sector. The new scalar produces no discernible signatures in existing terrestrial experiments so that one may have to rely on other cosmological tests of this idea.
Related Concept Videos
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Emission Spectra
The Principle of Superposition and the Gravitational Field
The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom
The de Broglie Wavelength
Schwarzschild Radius and Event Horizon
The minimum speed required to launch a projectile from the surface of an object to which it is gravitationally bound so that it eventually escapes the object’s gravitational field is called the escape velocity. The escape velocity is independent of the mass of the object. Merging the idea of escape velocity with the...

