The Higgs and cosmology

I'll discuss the role of the Higgs boson as a probe of the hidden sector. The latter is of particular importance in cosmology as it may host dark matter and the inflaton. Due to its scalar nature, the Higgs boson provides a unique handle on properties of such Standard Model--singlet states.

This framework also offers interesting insights into the question of vacuum metastability and leads to specific signatures at the LHC.