The Higgs mechanism may be a quantum phenomenon, i.e., a Coleman-Weinberg potential generated by the explicit breaking of scale symmetry in Feynman loops. We review the relationship of scale symmetry and trace anomalies, and we show that the Coleman-Weinberg potential can be defined as the solution to a differential renormalization group equation that follows from the trace of the improved stress tensor. We propose a simple phenomenological model with “maximal visibility” at the LHC containing a “dormant” Higgs doublet [no VEV, coupled to standard model gauge interactions $SU(2)\times U(1)$] with a mass of $\sim 380\mathrm{GeV}$. We discuss the LHC phenomenology and UV challenges of such a model. We also give a schematic model in which new heavy fermions, with masses $\sim 230\mathrm{GeV}$, can drive a Coleman-Weinberg potential at two loops. The role of the “improved stress tensor” is emphasized, and we propose a nongravitational term, analogous to the $\theta$ term in QCD, which generates it from a scalar action.

• Received 16 January 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.89.073003