A renormalization group analysis of the Higgs boson with heavy fermions and compositeness

We study the properties of heavy fermions in the vector-like representation of the electro-weak gauge group SU(2)W × U(1)Y with Yukawa couplings to the standard model Higgs boson. Using the renormalization group analysis, we discuss their effects on the vacuum stability and the triviality bound on the Higgs self-coupling, within the context of the standard model (i.e., the Higgs particle is elementary). Contrary to the low energy case where the decoupling theorem dictates their behavior, the inclusion of heavy fermions drastically changes the standard model structure at high scales. We also discuss the interesting possibility of compositeness, i.e., the Higgs particle is composed of the heavy fermions using the method of Bardeen, Hill and Lindner [Phys. Rev. D 41 (1990) 1647]. Finally we briefly comment on their possible role in explaining Rb and Rc.