Next-to-Next-Leading Order analysis of electroweak vacuum stability and rising inflection point

Abstract

We show an analysis on the gauge-independent observables associated with two stationary configurations of the Standard Model (SM) potential (extrapolated to high energy at Next-to-Next-to-Leading-Order (NNLO)): i) the value of the top mass ensuring stability of the SM electroweak vacuum and ii) the value of the Higgs potential at a rising inflection point. We examine in detail and reappraise the experimental and theoretical uncertainties which plague their determination, keeping alive the possibility for the SM of being stable and studying applications of such configuration to models of primordial inflation.