Strongly first-order electroweak phase transition and classical scale invariance

Abstract

In this work, we examine the possibility of realizing a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition within the minimal classically scale invariant extension of the standard model (SM), previously proposed and analyzed as a potential solution to the hierarchy problem. By introducing one complex singlet scalar and three right-handed Majorana neutrinos, the scenario was successfully capable of achieving a radiative breaking of the electroweak symmetry (Coleman-Weinberg Mechanism), inducing non-zero masses for the SM neutrinos (seesaw mechanism), presenting a pseudoscalar dark matter candidate, and predicting the existence of a second $CP$-even boson in addition to the 125 GeV scalar. We construct the full finite-temperature one-loop effective potential of the model, including the resummed thermal daisy loops, and demonstrate that finite-temperature effects induce a first-order electroweak phase transition. Requiring the thermally-driven first-order phase transition to be sufficiently strong further constrains the model's parameter space; in particular, an $\mathcal O(0.01)$ fraction of the dark matter in the universe may be simultaneously accommodated with a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition. Moreover, such a phase transition disfavors right-handed Majorana neutrino masses above several hundreds of GeV, confines the pseudoscalar dark matter masses to $\sim 1$-2 TeV, predicts the mass of the second $CP$-even scalar to be $\sim 100$-300 GeV, and requires the mixing angle between the $CP$-even components of the SM doublet and the complex singlet to lie within the range $0.2 \lesssim \sin\omega \lesssim 0.4$. The obtained results are displayed in comprehensive exclusion plots, identifying the viable regions of the parameter space. Many of these predictions lie within the reach of the next LHC run.