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2 votes
0 answers
64 views

Masses of $SU(2)$ gauge bosons

I'm currently learning quantum field theory and I'm wondering one thing.The way I understood it is that in the $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills theory, all gauge bosons have the same mass due to the spontaneous ...
Hendriksdf5's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
63 views

Is there an operator to measure pre-SSB boson states?

A common statement is that post-SSB electroweak gauge bosons are linear combinations of pre-SSB gauge bosons. It is also usually stated that pre-SSB bosons can also be thought of as linear ...
Vitaly Korzhik's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
62 views

Predicting a nonzero mass for the photon

This is a concern I had after I had read the reply for a previous question I had: On the masslessness of the photon So, I have been told that there are cases in which the gauge symmetry that preserves ...
schris38's user avatar
  • 3,982
2 votes
0 answers
128 views

What is the current theoretical and experimental understanding of the mass of the photon? [duplicate]

To what extend are we allowed to claim that the photon has some sort of mass, below some threshold. We certainly have no experimental evidence that the photon is completely massless, but, due to the ...
schris38's user avatar
  • 3,982
1 vote
1 answer
112 views

Symmetries changing depending on spacetime?

Just as the Lorentz symmetry holds globally in Minkowski spacetime, could the opposite also occur? That is, are there any spacetimes where the Lorentz symmetry would be broken (locally, not just ...
vengaq's user avatar
  • 2,466
2 votes
1 answer
123 views

Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and gauge symmetry

As mention in David Tong's Lecture note: Gauge symmetry is, in many ways, an odd foundation on which to build our best theories of physics. It is not a property of Nature, but rather a property of ...
King Meruem's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
70 views

Explicit computation in finding the minima of a gauge symmetry invariant potential

I'm reading some notes about the symmetry breaking and the standard model. From what I understand, typically one has a symmetry group of transformations (the gauge group) acting on vectors of fields, ...
geodesic's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
254 views

Structure Group vs Gauge Group in Gauge Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking

Recently I’ve been learning about spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) for gauge theories. I’ve stumbled across some really helpful resources, such as Hamilton’s Mathematical Gauge Theory – With ...
leob's user avatar
  • 559
0 votes
0 answers
91 views

In QCD, Why the order parameter of chiral symmetry takes the form $\langle0 \lvert \bar{\psi}\psi\rvert 0 \rangle$?

A simple question, why the order parameter of QCD chiral symmetry (chiral condensate) take this form: (or let's say why choose $\bar{\psi}\psi$ to judge there is SSB(spontaneous symmetry breaking) or ...
a Fish in Dirac Sea's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
873 views

Local $SU(2)$ symmetry breaking and unitary gauge

In a $SU(2)$ gauge field theory with scalar field $\phi$ in the fundamental representation of the $SU(2)$ group with lagrangian $$\mathcal{L} = -\frac{1}{2}TrF_{\mu\nu}F^{\mu\nu} + (D_{\mu}\phi)^\...
zequi's user avatar
  • 43
3 votes
0 answers
134 views

Why are these loop diagrams involving Goldstone bosons cancelling one another in the zero-momentum limit?

I have been working with one-loop corrections to certain processes. Let's say, corrections to the $Z\bar{f}f$ vertex. Of, course I need to consider the following diagrams: Here $\phi^{\pm}$ is the ...
avocado_love's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
122 views

Why are photons massless? [duplicate]

I am trying to understand, from the QFT perspective, why photons are massless. Let's consider the following Lagrangian for a massive U(1) gauge boson $\mathcal{L}=-\frac{1}{4}F^{\mu\nu}F_{\mu\nu}+m^2A^...
Jordi's user avatar
  • 130
5 votes
0 answers
164 views

Intuition/Motivation behind necessity of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking to generate massive gauge bosons

In field theory textbooks, it is shown that while any gauge invariant Lagrangian must involve massless gauge fields, to obtain massive gauge bosons, we must postulate the existence of a Higgs scalar ...
Ishan Deo's user avatar
  • 1,588
3 votes
1 answer
165 views

Hidden gauge symmetry in spontaneously broken phase?

Throughout this post I will be using Weinberg's notation. When a global symmetry group $G$ is spontaneously broken down to a subgroup $H$, it is often useful to reparametrize whatever fields that make ...
fewfew4's user avatar
  • 3,514
0 votes
1 answer
197 views

Current conservation in presence of SSB: weak currents

The Standard Model SSB breaks the $SU(2)_W \times U(1)_Y$ to $U(1)_{EM}$. The Noether currents associated to the unbroken group are $J_{a,\mu} = \bar{\psi} \gamma_\mu \frac{\tau_a}{2} P_L \psi $ and $...
Stefano Di Noi's user avatar

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