Higgs Field-Induced Triboluminescence in Binary Black Hole Mergers

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Higgs Induced Triboluminescence in Binary Black Hole

Mergers

Universe 2434876

 

In this paper the authors describe a phenomenon dubbed Triboluminescence that may occur in the vicinity of a black hole horizon. In particular, the authors focus in the physics of two merging black holes.

The proposed scenario is due to the gravitational corrections to the Higgs potential but may have a strong impact in the multi messenger signals produced during the merger of the binary.

The authors made a thorough description of the mechanism and under some hypotheses on the physics in a strong gravitational field got some estimates on the energy released that may be measured by some detectors. The hypotheses used are standard and are known to give correct orders of magnitud, thus I consider the main phenomenon

is well captured and with a more sophisticated model (say a semiclassical approach to gravity) small corrections will arise.

 

The paper is well written and easy to follow. I thus consider the paper may be published in Universe in its present form.

  

Author Response

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the referee for his/her positive assessment of our work. His/her appreciation is truly appreciated and motivates us to continue our research efforts.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper appears interesting.

The authors have to clarify essentially a conceptual point to me. As it is well-known, the Coleman-Weinberg represents a mechanism where the symmetric vacuum undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking as one can find from radiative quantum corrections. So, how is this included into this conjecture made by the authors? 

Further, a similar fact resembles the use of Higgs potential, namely fourth-potential, to induce mechanisms of cancellation of vacuum energy into inflationary epochs, as the authors can see in https://inspirehep.net/literature/2063417, https://inspirehep.net/literature/1680473, https://inspirehep.net/literature/2653279. Just quoting such approaches in the general context here-developed would be helpful for readers to see the validity of such a potential even at the level of cosmology.

Finally, do the authors think that their proposal is somehow related to the intriguing fact that coupling the fourth order potential with curvature improves the fits at inflationary time as Planck satellite pointed out? 

Besides the above points, the paper appears well-written and I appreciate it. I wait to receive the improved version for a final read.

English style appears not bad. Some improvements could be useful for readers. The authors may try to fix some hard sentences in order to write them better.

Author Response

The paper appears interesting.

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Response:

We sincerely thank the referee for their valuable comments, which have significantly contributed to the improvement of our manuscript. We have carefully addressed each comment and provided detailed clarifications and corresponding edits in the revised version of the manuscript. We believe that these revisions have further strengthened the quality and clarity of our work.

We have also made additional adjustments to certain sentences to enhance
readability and ensure that the content is easily digestible for readers.

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The authors have to clarify essentially a conceptual point to me.
As it is well-known, the Coleman-Weinberg represents a mechanism where the symmetric
vacuum undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking as one can find from radiative quantum corrections.
So, how is this included into this conjecture made by the authors?

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Response:

The Section 4 of this review focuses on the key aspects of the standard
Coleman-Weinberg mechanism, which elucidates how a theory can undergo
spontaneous symmetry breaking due to radiative quantum corrections.
A pivotal aspect of this method involves the regularization of integrals
in Minkowski space-time, such as the one presented in equation (49).
Through quantization, the potential of the Higgs field (48) undergoes modifications described by equation (50), where the leading terms of the one-loop corrections are accounted for in equation (53).

The referee's inquiry is addressed primarily in Section 6
(Quantum vacuum at a horizon), where we investigate the application
of the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism on a Schwarzschild background. In this
particular scenario, integrals of the form presented in equation (49) are
subject to modifications, as demonstrated in equation (66). Consequently, in the vicinity of a black hole horizon, the standard radiative corrections described by equation (50) are further influenced by equation (67). This implies that near the horizon, the one-loop corrections (53) are altered in a manner that shifts the position of the maximum of the Higgs potential towards values closer to the electroweak scale. Consequently, the vacuum destabilization and the possibility of nucleating new phase bubbles become feasible at significantly lower scales.

As an additional clarification we added a summarizing paragraph bellow equation (67).

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Further, a similar fact resembles the use of Higgs potential, namely fourth-potential,
to induce mechanisms of cancellation of vacuum energy into inflationary epochs, as the authors can see in
https://inspirehep.net/literature/2063417, https://inspirehep.net/literature/1680473,
https://inspirehep.net/literature/2653279. Just quoting such approaches in the general
context here-developed would be helpful for readers to see the validity of such a potential even at the level of cosmology.

Finally, do the authors think that their proposal is somehow related to the intriguing
fact that coupling the fourth order potential with curvature improves the fits at inflationary time as Planck satellite pointed out?

=========
Response:

Following the referee's suggestion, we have included an additional
paragraph at the end of Section 8, highlighting a potential application
of the gravitational modification of the Higgs potential in the context of inflationary cosmology. This application holds promise for shedding new light on the dynamics of the early universe and providing alternative mechanisms for understanding the cancellation of vacuum energy during inflationary epochs.

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Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Great job from the authors, I really liked reading their work. I do accept it for publication.

English is fine, I don't see significant need of improvements.