Explanation of the $W$ mass shift at CDF II in the Georgi-Machacek Model

Abstract

The CDF II experiment has recently determined the mass of the $W$ boson to be $m_W(\text{CDF II}) = 80.4335 \pm 0.0094~$GeV, which deviates from the standard model prediction at $7\sigma$ level. Although this new result is in tension with other experiments such as those at LHC and LEP, it is worth discussing possible implications on new physics by this anomaly. We show that this large discrepancy can be explained by non-aligned vacuum expectation values of isospin triplet scalar fields in the Georgi-Machacek model extended with custodial symmetry breaking terms in the potential. The latter is required to avoid an undesirable Nambu-Goldstone boson as well as to be consistent treatment of radiative corrections. With $m_W(\text{CDF II})$ as one of the renormalization inputs at the 1-loop level, we derive the required difference in the triplet vacuum expectation values, followed by a discussion of phenomenological consequences in the scenario.