Twisted spectral geometry for the standard model

Abstract

The Higgs field is a connection one-form as the other bosonic fields, provided one describes space no more as a manifold M but as a slightly non-commutative generalization of it. This is well encoded within the theory of spectral triples: all the bosonic fields of the standard model - including the Higgs - are obtained on the same footing, as fluctuations of a generalized Dirac operator by a matrix-value algebra of functions on M. In the commutative case, fluctuations of the usual free Dirac operator by the complex-value algebra A of smooth functions on M vanish, and so do not generate any bosonic field. We show that imposing a twist in the sense of Connes-Moscovici forces to double the algebra A, but does not require to modify the space of spinors on which it acts. This opens the way to twisted fluctuations of the free Dirac operator, that yield a perturbation of the spin connection. Applied to the standard model, a similar twist yields in addition the extra scalar field needed to stabilize the electroweak vacuum, and to make the computation of the Higgs mass in noncommutative geometry compatible with its experimental value.