Abstract:
The effective potential of the Higgs scalar field in the Standard Model
may have a second degenerate minimum at an ultrahigh vacuum expectation value.
This second minimum then determines, by radiative corrections,
the values of the top-quark and Higgs-boson masses
at the standard minimum corresponding to the electroweak energy scale.
An argument is presented that this ultrahigh vacuum expectation value
is proportional to the energy scale of gravity,
$E_{\text{Planck}} \equiv \sqrt{\hbar\, c^5/G_{N}}$,
considered to be characteristic of a spacetime foam.
In the context of a simple model, the existence of
kink-type wormhole solutions places a lower bound on the
ultrahigh vacuum expectation value and this lower bound
is of the order of $E_{\text{Planck}}$.