Conformal invariance and spontaneous symmetry breaking

We study the spontaneous symmetry breaking in a conformally invariant gravitational theory. We particularly emphasize on the nonminimal coupling of matter fields to gravity. By the nonminimal coupling we consider a local distinction between the conformal frames of metric of matter fieldsand the metric explicitly entering the vacuum sector. We suppose that these two frames are conformally related by a dilaton field. We show that the imposition of a condition on the variable mass term of a scalar field may lead to the spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this way the scalar field may imitate the Higgs field behavior. Attributing a constant configuration to the ground state of the Higgs field, a Higgs conformal frame is specified. We define the Higgs conformal frame as a cosmological frame which describes the large scale characteristics of the observed universe. In the cosmological frame the gravitational coupling acquires a correct value and one no longer deals with the vacuum energy problem. We then study a more general case by considering a variable configuration for the ground state of Higgs field. In this case we introduce a cosmological solution of themodel.     

Derivation of the Gross-Pitaevskii Equation for Rotating Bose Gases

We prove that the Gross-Pitaevskii equation correctly describes the ground state energy and corresponding one-particle density matrix of rotating, dilute, trapped Bose gases with repulsive two-body interactions. We also show that there is 100% Bose-Einstein condensation. While a proof that the GP equation correctly describes non-rotating or slowly rotating gases was known for some time, the rapidly rotating case was unclear because the Bose (i.e., symmetric) ground state is not the lowest eigenstate of the Hamiltonian in this case. We have been able to overcome this difficulty with the aid of coherent states. Our proof also conceptually simplifies the previous proof for the slowly rotating case. In the case of axially symmetric traps, our results show that the appearance of quantized vortices causes spontaneous symmetry breaking in the ground state.     

Mach's Principle and Model for a Broken Symmetric Theory of Gravity

We investigate spontaneous symmetry breaking in a conformally invariant gravitational model. In particular, we use a conformally invariant scalar tensor theory as the vacuum sector of a gravitational model to examine the idea that gravitational coupling may be the result of a spontaneous symmetry breaking. In this model matter is taken to be coupled with a metric which is different but conformally related to the metric appearing explicitly in the vacuum sector. We show that after the spontaneous symmetry breaking the resulting theory is consistent with Mach's principle in the sense that inertial masses of particles have variable configurations in a cosmological context. Moreover, our analysis allows to construct a mechanism in which the resulting large vacuum energy density relaxes during evolution of the universe.     

Spontaneous rotating vortex lattices in a pumped decaying condensate

Injection and decay of particles in an inhomogeneous quantum condensate can significantly change its behavior. We model trapped, pumped, decaying condensates by a complex Gross-Pitaevskii equation and analyze the density and currents in the steady state. With homogeneous pumping, rotationally symmetric solutions are unstable. Stability may be restored by a finite pumping spot. However if the pumping spot is larger than the Thomas-Fermi cloud radius, then rotationally symmetric solutions are replaced by solutions with spontaneous arrays of vortices. These vortex arrays arise without any rotation of the trap, spontaneously breaking rotational symmetry.     

Gross-Pitaevskii Theory of the Rotating Bose Gas

 We study the Gross-Pitaevskii functional for a rotating two-dimensional Bose gas in a trap. We prove that there is a breaking of the rotational symmetry in the ground state; more precisely, for any value of the angular velocity and for large enough values of the interaction strength, the ground state of the functional is not an eigenfunction of the angular momentum. This has interesting consequences on the Bose gas with spin; in particular, the ground state energy depends non-trivially on the number of spin components, and the different components do not have the same wave function. For the special case of a harmonic trap potential, we give explicit upper and lower bounds on the critical coupling constant for symmetry breaking. Received: 1 December 2001 / Accepted: 19 April 2002 Published online: 6 August 2002     

Universal Nature of Replica Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Systems with Gaussian Disorder

We study quantum spin systems with quenched Gaussian disorder. We prove that the variance of all physical quantities in a certain class vanishes in the infinite volume limit. We study also replica symmetry breaking phenomena, where the variance of an overlap operator in the other class does not vanish in the replica symmetric Gibbs state. On the other hand, it vanishes in a spontaneous replica symmetry breaking Gibbs state defined by applying an infinitesimal replica symmetry breaking field. We prove also that the finite variance of the overlap operator in the replica symmetric Gibbs state implies the existence of a spontaneous replica symmetry breaking.     

A NEW MECHANISM OF GAUGE SYMMETRY EREAKING INDUCED BY GRAVITY AND NATURALLY VANISHING COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT

A new mechanism of gauge symmetry breaking is found which is induced by gravity in the SU(N) SUSY GUTS. The cosmological constant naturally vanishes, but the vacuum degeneracy cannot be removed at zero temperature.     

A Variational Approach for Hadronic Properties in NJL Model

We develop a variational approach for the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model with explicit chiral symmetry breaking and compute the constituent quark mass, the pion decay constant and the vacuum condensate. For a simple ansatz for the hadronic wavefunction, we also analyze the effects of the current quark mass and the ultraviolet cutoff on the static properties of hadrons.     

Symmetry Breaking for Matter Coupled to Linearized Supergravity from the Perspective of the Current Supermultiplet

We consider a generic supersymmetric matter theory coupled to linearized supergravity, and analyze scenarios for spontaneous symmetry breaking in terms of vacuum expectation values of components of the current supermultiplet. When the vacuum expectation of the energy momentum tensor is zero, but the scalar current or pseudoscalar current gets an expectation, evaluation of the gravitino self energy using the supersymmetry current algebra shows that there is an induced gravitino mass term. The structure of this term generalizes the supergravity action with cosmological constant to theories with CP violation. When the vacuum expectation of the energy momentum tensor is nonzero, supersymmetry is broken; requiring cancellation of the cosmological constant gives the corresponding generalized gravitino mass formula.     

Particle mixing, flavor condensate and dark energy

The mixing of neutrinos and quarks generate a vacuum condensate that, at the present epoch, behaves as a cosmological constant. The value of the dark energy is constrained today by the very small breaking of the Lorentz invariance.     

Condensate preserving the symmetry of the Lagrangian. Symmetry breakdown

A multicomponent scalar field may preserve the symmetry of the Lagrangian when the stability of the perturbation theory vacuum is lost. This leads to the appearance of a degenerate vacuum, whose excitation spectrum slightly differs from the spectrum observed in the case of spontaneous symmetry breaking. The possibility of the appearance of such a condensate in a QCD vacuum is discussed.     

Gravitation and spontaneous symmetry breaking

It is pointed out that the Higgs field may be supplanted by an ordinary Klein-Gordon field conformally coupled to the space-time curvature, and with very small, real, rest mass. Provided there is a bare cosmological constant of order of its square mass, this field can induce spontaneous symmetry breaking with a mass scale that can be as large as the Planck-Wheeler mass, but may be smaller. It can thus play a natural role in grand unified theories. In the theory presented here the physical cosmological constant is small, being of order of the squared mass, and can meet observational constraints without having to be cancelled accurately. The physical gravitational constant differs somewhat from the coupling constant in Einstein's equation, and is temperature dependent in the broken symmetry regime. Symmetry restoration occurs at high temperature.Research supported by the Arnow Chair in Astrophysics.     

Effective Minkowski-to-Euclidean signature change of the magnon BEC pseudo-Goldstone mode in polar <Superscript>3</Superscript>He

We discuss the effective metric experienced by the Nambu–Goldstone mode propagating in the broken symmetry spin-superfluid state of coherent precession of magnetization. This collective mode represents the phonon in the RF driven or pulsed out-of-equilibrium Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of optical magnons. We derive the effective BEC free energy and consider the phonon spectrum when the spin superfluid BEC is formed in the anisotropic polar phase of superfluid ³He, experimentally observed in uniaxial aerogel ³He-samples. The coherent precession of magnetization experiences an instability at a critical value of the tilting angle of external magnetic field with respect to the anisotropy axis. From the action of quadratic deviations around equilibrium, this instability is interpreted as a Minkowski-to-Euclidean signature change of the effective phonon metric. We also note the similarity between the magnon BEC in the unstable region and an effective vacuum scalar “ghost” condensate.     

玻色-爱因斯坦凝聚体中的超流现象

在玻色－爱因斯坦凝聚（BEC）的超流现象的研究中，人们通常采用平均场近似下求解Gross-Pitaveskii方程的方法，我们采用更严格的准确对角化的方法对弱排斥相互作用下两维旋转N－Boson体系的凝聚状态进行了研究，研究表明，弱相互作用下的基态并不是人们通常认为的单一凝聚态，而是一个碎裂凝聚态，通过碎裂态能谱与平均场方法给出的能谱之间的比较以及条件几率分布函数的计算，我们指出这种碎裂凝聚态有着内在的不稳定性，很容易破缺到一个单一凝聚状态；计算给出的条件几率分布可以用来揭示破缺石的状态，其分布图案与平均场近似下得到的涡旋图形相类似，我们进一步注意到过去研究工作主要集中在弱相互作用极限下和强相互作用Thomas-Fermi近似极限下这两种极端情况，为考察两种极限间的中间过渡区域，我们研究了中等相互作用强度下体系的基态性质。     

52Cr spinor condensate: a biaxial or uniaxial spin nematic

We show that the newly discovered 52Cr Bose condensate in zero magnetic field can be a spin nematic of the following kind: a "maximum" polar state, a "colinear" polar state, or a biaxial nematic ferromagnetic state. We also present the phase diagram with a magnetic field in the interaction subspace containing the chromium condensate. It contains many uniaxial and biaxial spin nematic phases, which often but not always break time reversal symmetry, and can exist with or without spontaneous magnetization.     

Coherent dynamics of domain formation in the Bose ferromagnet

We present a theory to describe domain formation observed very recently in a quenched 87Rb gas, a typical ferromagnetic spinor Bose system. An overlap factor is introduced to characterize the symmetry breaking of MF=+/-1 components for the F=1 ferromagnetic condensate. We demonstrate that the domain formation is a coeffect of the quantum coherence and the thermal relaxation. A thermally enhanced quantum oscillation is observed during the dynamical process of the domain formation. And the spatial separation of domains leads to significant decay of the MF=0 component fraction in an initial MF=0 condensate.     

Generation of compressed sub-poisson Bose condensate by an atom laser

The dynamics of Bose-condensate generation by a cw atom laser with simultaneous stimulated evaporative cooling in a magnetic trap was analyzed using a quantum-mechanical master equation. The model of the atom laser includes irreversible processes of incoherent trap mode pumping and spontaneous atomic transitions due to the interaction of the atomic ensemble with heat reservoirs. The inelastic atomic collisions in the trap and the continual coherent Bose-condensate output coupling from the trap were considered. At certain values of parameters, the Bose condensate created in this laser scheme occurs in a compressed sub-Poisson state. For large Bose condensates with a mean number of atoms ～10⁶, the Fano factor may be as high as ?0.5. The influence of spontaneous transitions from the excited trap modes on the statistics of Bose condensate was analyzed.     

Effects of zero mode and thin spectrum on the life time of atomic Bose Einstein condensates

Reviewing the ideas developed in [1], the ground state life time of a finite size atomic Bose Einstein condensate is studied for coherent, squeezed coherent and thermal coherent ground states. Ground state evolution of coherent and squeezed coherent states in a double well potential is studied. Effects of thin spectrum on Bose-Einstein condensates is discussed and quasiparticle excitation lifetimes are calculated. It is shown that the effect of the states we use on the free energy vanishes in the thermodynamic limit. Possible extension to a double well potential and effect of a second broken symmetry is also discussed.     

Interactions of condensate atoms in the process of velocity-selective coherent population trapping

The properties of a one-dimensional atomic Bose condensate are studied under the assumption that the condensation leads to a state of velocity-selective coherent population trapping. This state is characterized by the quantum correlation (entanglement) between the intrinsic angular momentum of an atom and its translational motion underlying nontrivial features of the condensate. The effects of weak interatomic interaction are taken into account. The steady state of above-condensate atoms corresponding to the slow decay of the state with coherent population trapping is found. The dynamic problem concerning the evolution of the system of above-condensate atoms after switching off the optical field forming the state with coherent population trapping is solved. The solution is found by the diagonalization of the Hamiltonian based on introducing the Bogoliubov quasiparticles with the unusual dispersion law.     

Dynamical Symmetry Breaking for Weinberg-Salam Model and Restoration at Finite Temperature

In this paper, we utilize Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) mechanism to discuss the dynamical symmetry breaking for Weinberg-Salam model. In the NJL mechanism the symmetry breaking not only is determined by the potential ofscalar field V(φ) but also has important relation with condensate of the fermion pair (φφ). We find that the coefficient of quadric term of scalar field μ² ≥ 0 can still cause symmetry breaking by virtue of (φφ) ≠ 0, and the vacuum expected value of scalar field obeys (φ) = (φφ), i.e., the order parameter which causes phase transition is the condensate of fermion pair (φφ). We also discuss the restoration problem of SU(2) × U(1) gauge symmetry breaking by the NJL mechanism at high temperatures.