# Tagged Questions

The symmetry-breaking tag has no wiki summary.

2answers
83 views

### The status of $SU(3)_C$ symmetry in the Standard Model

In the Standard Model of Particle physics the $SU(2)_{EW}$ symmetry and the $SU(2)$ isospin symmetry are broken. What about $SU(3)_C$? Is it broken too? if YES, what breaks the symmetry? If NO, what ...
1answer
131 views

### Early time in the Big Bang

I am not a physicist, so I would really appreciate using a simple language for the explanation of my question. From what I understood at the early Big Bang the four fundamental forces were unified to ...
1answer
78 views

### Symmetry breaking with Lagrangian

I have been studying the spontaneous symmetry braking from Zee (Quantum Field theory ) and found in the page 224, he wrote the lagrangian as \mathcal{L}= \frac{1}{2}\{ λ (∂φ)^2 + μ^2φ^ 2\} − ...
1answer
73 views

### How to find the Higgs coupling with a mixing matrix?

It is known that the couplings to the Higgs are proportional to the mass for fermions; $$g_{hff}=\frac{M_f}{v}$$ where $v$ is the VEV of the Higgs field. I'm trying to figure out why this is true ...
3answers
220 views

### Will Cone standing on its tip, without any other force other than gravity topple?

A cone standing on its tip is considered to be in unstable equilibrium as a slightest force could topple it. So, if the cone is stood on its tip with no other force other than gravity (and the ...
1answer
84 views

### Multiple vacua vs. vev's in qft

Take a (possibly supersymmetric) relativistic quantum field theory: when we construct it, we suppose that there is a unique vacuum state $|0\rangle$ which is Lorentz invariant, vector of some Hilbert ...
0answers
52 views

### Does the Standard Model plasma develop a spontaneous magnetisation at finite temperature?

Reference: arXiv:1204.3604v1 [hep-ph] Long-range magnetic fields in the ground state of the Standard Model plasma. Alexey Boyarsky, Oleg Ruchayskiy, Mikhail Shaposhnikov. The authors of this paper ...
1answer
94 views

### Spontaneous symmetry breaking: How can the vacuum be infinitly degenerate?

In classical field theories, it is with no difficulty to imagine a system to have a continuum of ground states, but how can this be in the quantum case? Suppose a continuous symmetry with charge $Q$ ...
0answers
52 views

### Spontaneous symmetry breaking in the quantum 1D XX model?

The ground states of the quantum 1D Ising and Heisenberg models exhibit spontaneous magnetization. Is this also true for the 1D XX model?
1answer
424 views

### Emergent symmetries

As we know, spontaneous symmetry breaking(SSB) is a very important concept in physics. Loosely speaking, zero temprature SSB says that the Hamiltonian of a quantum system has some symmetry, but the ...
1answer
210 views

### Spontaneous breaking of Lorentz invariance in gauge theories

I was browsing through the hep-th arXiv and came across this article: Spontaneous Lorentz Violation in Gauge Theories. A. P. Balachandran, S. Vaidya. arXiv:1302.3406 [hep-th]. (Submitted on 14 ...
0answers
58 views

### Dimensional transmutation in Gross-Neveu vs others

Firstly I don't know how generic is dimensional transmutation and if it has any general model independent definition. Is dimensional transmutation in Gross-Neveau somehow fundamentally different ...
0answers
29 views

### Residual symmetries of the superposition of two fcc lattices

Fcc lattices are Bravais lattices and so are invariant under a set of discrete translations plus inversions over the 3 axis ($x\rightarrow -x$,$y\rightarrow -y$,$z\rightarrow -z$). When one superposes ...
1answer
90 views

### Chiral perturbation theory: what is the Quark Condensate? why expand in $U$ rather than Goldstone fields?

I'm studying Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) from Scherer's manuscript "Introduction to Chiral Perturbation Theory", available at http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0210398 What I am currently having ...
1answer
102 views

### What is the meaning of non-compactness in the context of $U(1)$ in gauge theories?

In John Preskill's review of monopoles he states Nowadays, we have another way of understanding why electric charge is quantized. Charge is quantized if the electromagnetic U(l)em gauge group ...
3answers
192 views

### Ising Ferromagnet: Spontaneous symmetry breaking or not?

In explaining/introducing second-order phase transition using Ising system as an example, it is shown via mean-field theory that there are two magnetized phases below the critical temperature. This ...
1answer
148 views

### Dispersion of ferromagnetic ($E\propto k^2$) and antiferromagnetic ($E\propto k$) spin wave

The dispersion of ferromagnetic spin wave at low energy is $E\propto k^2$, while $E\propto k$ for antiferromagnetic case. Is there a simple/physical argument (such as symmetry) for these results? ...
0answers
92 views

1answer
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### Spontaneous symmetry breaking in SU(5) GUT?

At the end of this video lecture about grand unified theories, Prof. Susskind explains that there should be some kind of an additional Higgs mechanism at work, to break the symmetry between the ...
2answers
209 views

### Dynamical supersymmetry breaking and Witten index

Witten index, defined as ${\rm Tr}(-1)^F$, makes know if supersymmetry is spontaneously broken or not for a given model. But it is known that supersymmetry can be also broken dynamically and one can ...
2answers
297 views

### What is the role of the vacuum expectation value in symmetry breaking and the generation of mass?

Consider a theory of one complex scalar field with the following Lagrangian. $$\mathcal{L}=\partial _\mu \phi ^*\partial ^\mu \phi +\mu ^2\phi ^*\phi -\frac{\lambda}{2}(\phi ^*\phi )^2.$$ The ...
0answers
37 views

### Taylor-Slavnov Identity in spontaneously broken gauge theories

Where can I find a list of important Taylor-Slavnov identities in Spontaneously broken gauge theories? I am looking for not just the generating functional form, but rather a list of explicit ones ...
0answers
112 views

### Higgs stability in Standard Model

I am a little unclear on what ramifications a negative quartic at high energies has on our world at low energies. (1) First of all, is it that there is a second, isolated minimum that appears at ...
1answer
316 views

### Time crystals : fake or revolution?

This article about "crystals of time" just appeared on the PRL website. Viewpoint: Crystals of Time (http://physics.aps.org/articles/v5/116) The authors (including famous Frank Wilczek) claim that ...
2answers
856 views

### Norton's dome and its equation

Norton's dome is the curve $$h(r) = -\frac{2}{3g} r ^{3/2}.$$ Where $h$ is the height and $r$ is radial arc distance along the dome. The top of the dome is at $h = 0$. Via Norton's web. If we put ...
0answers
104 views

### Breaking of conformal symmetry

I am wondering something about the breaking of conformal symmetry: I know that it can be broken at the quantum level, anomalously, but I never encountered or heard about a model where it is broken "à ...
1answer
536 views

### Self energy, 1PI, and tadpoles

I'm having a hard time reconciling the following discrepancy: Recall that in passing to the effective action via a Legendre transformation, we interpret the effective action $\Gamma[\phi_c]$ to be ...
3answers
222 views

### Higgs Boson: The Big Picture

First, please pardon the ignorance behind this question. I know a fair amount of math but almost no physics. I'm hoping someone can give me a brief "big picture" explanation of how physicists were ...
1answer
148 views

### What if microstates increase proportional to universe volume?

I am probably a delusional crank with a lot of crazy, overly speculative conjectures. If I am not delusional, than at the very least I've been ahead of the curve, the last 40 or so years. I was a ...
1answer
152 views

### Does spontanous symmetry breaking affect Noethers theorem?

Does spontanous symmetry breaking affect the existence of a conserved charge? And how does depend on whether we look at a classical or a quantum field theory (e.g. the weak interacting theory)? ...
3answers
249 views

### How come a photon acts like it has mass in a superconducting field?

I've heard the Higgs mechanism explained as analogous to the reason that a photon acts like it has mass in a superconducting field. However, that's not too helpful if I don't understand the latter. ...
2answers
127 views

### Do particles gain mass only at energy levels found during the big bang?

I am trying to make sure my understanding is correct. At energies and temperatures found during the big bang (or at CERN recently), the Higgs mechanism comes into effect. When it does, there is a ...
2answers
233 views

### Effects of a non-Lorentz-invariant vacuum state

I'm here asking about real or though experiments (i.e., physical effects) where, at least in principle, one can see some consequence of a non-Lorentz-invariant vacuum state in an otherwise Poincare ...
4answers
2k views

### How does Higgs Boson get the rest mass?

Higgs Boson detected at LHC is massive. It has high relativistic mass means it has non-zero rest mass. Higgs Boson gives other things rest mass. But, how does it get rest mass by itself?
2answers
1k views

### Why do we need Higgs field to re-explain mass, but not charge?

We already had definition of mass based on gravitational interactions since before Higgs. It's similar to charge which is defined based on electromagnetic interactions of particles. Why did Higgs ...
1answer
151 views

### Higgs Boson - only little over GCSE physics? [closed]

According to http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/jul/04/higgs-boson-discovered-live-coverage-cern, the reporter says that higgs boson things are little over GCSE physics. So, English learn a ...
1answer
170 views

### What is Supersymmetry (SuSy)?

In particle physics, supersymmetry (often abbreviated SUSY) is a symmetry that relates elementary particles...etc. what is symmetry breaking? What is supersymmetry (SUSY)? What is spontaneous ...
1answer
104 views

### What kinds of inconsistencies would one get if one starts with Lorentz noninvariant Lagrangian of QFT?

What kinds of inconsistencies would one get if one starts with Lorentz noninvariant Lagrangian of QFT? The question is motivated by this preprint arXiv:1203.0609 by Murayama and Watanabe. Also, what ...
1answer
209 views

### Spontaneous symmetry breaking and 't Hooft and Polyakov monopoles

What is spontaneous symmetry breaking from a classical point of view. Could you give some examples, using classical systems.I am studying about the 't Hooft and Polyakov magnetic monopoles solutions, ...
1answer
1k views

### Spontaneous Time Reversal Symmetry Breaking?

It is known that you can break P spontaneously--- look at any chiral molecule for an example. Spontaneous T breaking is harder for me to visualize. Is there a well known condensed matter system which ...
1answer
155 views

### What is the code distance in quantum information theory?

What is the code distance in quantum information theory? Code distance seems to be a very important concept in fault tolerant quantum computation and topological quantum computation.
10answers
1k views

### What is spontaneous symmetry breaking in QUANTUM systems?

Most descriptions of spontaneous symmetry breaking, even for spontaneous symmetry breaking in quantum systems, actually only give a classical picture. According to the classical picture, spontaneous ...
1answer
72 views

### Can symmetry be restored in high energy scattering?

Suppose you have a field theory with a real scalar field $\phi$ and a potential term of the form $\lambda \phi^4 - \mu \phi^2$ that breaks the symmetry $\phi \to - \phi$ in the ground state. Is this ...
0answers
67 views

### What is the mean field value of a scalar field with spontaneously broken symmetry in a scattering event?

Consider you have a quantum field theory that undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking at some critical temperature. It doesn't necessarily have to be a continuous symmetry that's broken, I don't think ...
0answers
142 views

### Breaking of Lorentz invariance

Thinking about the concept of symmetry breaking led me to the following question: Let's say that I have a theory described by a Lorentz invariant Lagrangian, and the true vacuum of the theory is not ...
1answer
166 views

### Goldstone's theorem and massless modes for $\phi^4$ theory

Consider a scalar field doublet $(\phi_1, \phi_2)$ with a Mexican hat potential $$V~=~\lambda (\phi_1^2+\phi_2^2-a^2)^2.$$ When $a=0$ this is a quartic potential and the symmetry is not ...
0answers
103 views

### Polyakov action as broken symmetry effective action

I would like to ask if it is possible to regard the Polyakov action as an effective action that describes the broken symmetric phase of a more general model. Could someone draw an analogy with O(N) ...
1answer
220 views

### Where is the “true” higgs if the LHC 125 GeV signal is rather a higher dimensional radion than a SM higgs?

In this article, Lumo introduces and explains the idea (presented by the original authors in this paper) that the LHC signal at about 125 GeV could alternatively be interpreted as a higher ...
1answer
93 views

### Why are we forced to choose a specific value for $\pi$ field in Nambu-Goldstone phenomenon?

In the sigma-model of spontaneous symmetry breaking, we have degenerate vacuum states. But if we don't pick up a particular value of VEV, we won't have any symmetry breaking. As I read from a book, in ...
1answer
174 views

### Does measurement, quantum in particular, always increase the total entropy?

Measurement of a quantum observable (in an appropriate, old-fashioned sense) necessarily involves coupling to a system with a macroscopically large number of degrees of freedom. Entanglement with this ...
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