State-of-the-Art Calculation of the Decay Rate of Electroweak Vacuum in the Standard Model

The decay rate of the electroweak (EW) vacuum is calculated in the framework of the standard model (SM) of particle physics, using the recent progress in the understanding of the decay rate of metastable vacuum in gauge theories. We give a manifestly gauge-invariant expression of the decay rate. We also perform a detailed numerical calculation of the decay rate. With the best-fit values of the SM parameters, we find that the decay rate of the EW vacuum per unit volume is about 10⁻⁵⁵⁴ Gyr⁻¹ Gpc⁻³; with the uncertainty in the top mass, the decay rate is estimated as 10⁻²⁸⁴-10⁻¹³⁷¹ Gyr⁻¹ Gpc⁻³.