Can the Couplings in the Fermion-Higgs Sector of the Standard Model be Strong?

Abstract

We present results for the renormalized quartic self-coupling $λ_R$ and the Yukawa coupling $y_R$ in a lattice fermion-Higgs model with two SU(2)$_L$ doublets, mostly for large values of the bare couplings. One-component (`reduced') staggered fermions are used in a numerical simulation with the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm. The fermion and Higgs masses and the renormalized scalar field expectation value are computed on $L^3 24$ lattices, where $L$ ranges from $6$ to $16$. In the scaling region these quantities are found to have a $1/L^2$ dependence, which is used to determine their values in the infinite volume limit. We then calculate the $y_R$ and $λ_R$ from their tree level definitions in terms of the masses and renormalized scalar field expectation value, extrapolated to infinite volume. The scalar field propagators can be described for momenta up to the cut-off by one fermion loop renormalized perturbation theory and the results for $λ_R$ and $y_R$ come out to be close to the tree level unitarity bounds. There are no signs that are in contradiction with the triviality of the Yukawa and quartic self-coupling.