Bulk stabilization, the extra-dimensional Higgs portal and missing energy in Higgs events

To solve the hierarchy problem, extra-dimensional models must explain why the new dimensions stabilize to the right size, and the known mechanisms for doing so require bulk scalars that couple to the branes. Because of these couplings the energetics of dimensional stabilization competes with the energetics of the Higgs vacuum, with potentially observable effects. These effects are particularly strong for one or two extra dimensions because the …