Published January 2, 2026 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

Hiding new physics at the end of field space

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract

Is field space infinite? If not, it either loops back on itself or ends altogether. Periodic boundary conditions are of course familiar, but field space endpoints—which appear in real-world systems—are far less explored. In this paper we argue that boundaries in field space are generic, radiatively stable structures that allow for new physics at very low scales not ruled out by experiment. Such boundaries are delocalized in field space from the vacuum, so they can only be accessed by coherent fields or high multiplicity processes, both of which are weakly constrained observationally. Low multiplicity interactions do not detect the boundary and instead perceive a "mirage cutoff" that is parametrically higher than the true cutoff of the theory. Hence, field space boundaries are deformations of the standard model that are Lorentz invariant, local, unitary at low energies, and experimentally unconstrained. We comment on the possibility of field space boundaries on the long-range force carriers and the Higgs, as well as possible implications for the hierarchy problem.

Copyright and License

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to Nima Arkani-Hamed, Tim Cohen, Walter Goldberger, Andreas Helset, Michele Papucci, Aneesh Manohar, Julio Parra-Martinez, Riccardo Penco, Ryan Plestid, Grant Remmen, Eva Silverstein, Mark Wise, and Kathryn Zurek for insightful discussions. C. C. is supported by the Department of Energy (Grant No. DE-SC0011632) and by the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics. I. Z. R. is supported by the Department of Energy (Grants No. DE-FG02-04ER41338 and No. FG02-06ER41449).

Funding

C. C. is supported by the Department of Energy (Grant No. DE-SC0011632) and by the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics. I. Z. R. is supported by the Department of Energy (Grants No. DE-FG02-04ER41338 and No. FG02-06ER41449).

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Additional details

Funding

United States Department of Energy
DE-SC0011632
California Institute of Technology
Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics -
United States Department of Energy
DE-FG02-04ER41338
United States Department of Energy
FG02-06ER41449

Dates

Submitted
2024-11-13
Accepted
2025-11-14

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published