Sliding Naturalness: New Solution to the Strong-CP and Electroweak-Hierarchy Problems

Area of Science:

• High Energy Physics
• Cosmology
• Particle Physics

Background:

• The electroweak-hierarchy problem concerns the large discrepancy between the electroweak scale and the Planck scale.
• The strong-CP problem arises from the potential for CP violation in the strong interactions, which is experimentally unobserved.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel theoretical framework that simultaneously addresses the electroweak-hierarchy and strong-CP problems.
• To offer an alternative to conventional solutions like the Peccei-Quinn mechanism.

Main Methods:

• Development of a new theoretical framework.
• Analysis of the implications of a small, finite Higgs vacuum expectation value and a small theta angle after the QCD phase transition.
• Prediction of experimental signatures.

Main Results:

• A mechanism is presented where a small Higgs vacuum expectation value and a small theta angle naturally arise post-QCD phase transition.
• This framework avoids the need for the Peccei-Quinn mechanism or other standard solutions.
• Distinctive correlated signals are predicted for specific experimental searches.

Conclusions:

• The proposed framework offers a unified solution to two major problems in particle physics.
• The predicted experimental signals provide testable predictions for future research in hadronic EDM, fuzzy dark matter, and axion detection.