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.     

Symmetry Breaking Due to Conformally Invariant Scalar Field

In the framework of Weyl invariant gravitational field theory including torsion coupled to a scalar field with arbitrary selfinteraction it will be shown that any solution of such a generalized Goldstone model contains the conformally invariant field of a massless scalar particle. Due to this fact it may happen that dynamical symmetry breaking becomes impossible.     

Einstein gravity as spontaneously broken Weyl gravity

We study the locally conformal invariant Weyl theory of gravitation and introduce a conformally coupled scalar field. Einstein gravity is induced by spontaneous breaking of the local conformal symmetry in an effective long range approximation. The effective potential for the scalar field is calculated at the one-loop level up to curvature squared in order in an arbitrary curved background. The non-zero vacuum expectation value of the scalar field induces the dimensional Einstein's gravitational coupling constant stably in case ofR > 0. ForR < 0, the phase transition occurs from the symmetric phase to the broken phase as the curvature decreases. This theory may be an attractive candidate for the primordial inflationary universe scenario.     

Variational principle for gravitational equations of the Bianchi identity type

It is shown that a square invariant of the Weyl conformal curvature tensor can lead to a Lagrangian in a variational principle for a gravitational equation in vacuum of the Bianchi identity type which is compatible with the Einstein equation. Moreover we show that such a Lagrangian implicitly includes a conformally invariant theory characterized by two gauge fields and the metric tensor.     

A unified conformal model for fundamental interactions without dynamical Higgs field

A Higgsless model for strong, electroweak and gravitational interactions is proposed. This model is based on the local symmetry group SU(3)×SU(2)_L×U(1)×C,where C is the local conformal symmetry group. The natural minimal conformally invariant form of total Lagrangian is postulated. It contains all standard model fields and gravitational interaction. Using the unitary gauge and the conformal scale fixing conditions, we can eliminate all four real components of the Higgs doublet in this model. However, the masses of vector mesons, leptons, and quarks are automatically generated and are given by the same formulas as in the conventional standard model. In this manner one gets the mass generation without the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking and without the remaining real dynamical Higgs field. The gravitational sector is analyzed, and it is shown that the model admits in the classical limit the Einsteinian form of gravitational interactions.     

CONFORMAL INVARIANCE AND PARTICLE ASPECTS IN GENERAL RELATIVITY

We study the breakdown of conformal symmetry in a conformally invariant gravitational model. The symmetry breaking is introduced by defining a preferred conformal frame in terms of the large scale characteristics of the universe. In this context we show that a local change of the preferred conformal frame results in a Hamilton-Jacobi equation describing a particle with adjustable mass. In this equation the dynamical characteristics of the particle substantially depends on the applied conformal factor and local geometry. Relevant interpretations of the results are also discussed.     

Spontaneous symmetry breaking origin for the difference between time and space

We suggest that the difference between time and space is due to spontaneous symmetry breaking. In a theory with spinors the signature of the metric is related to the signature of the Lorentz group. We discuss a higher symmetry that contains pseudo-orthogonal groups with an arbitrary signature as subgroups. The fundamental asymmetry between time and space can then result as a property of the ground state rather than being put into the formulation of the theory a priori. We show how the complex structure of quantum field theory as well as gravitational field equations arise from spinor gravity--a fundamental spinor theory without a metric.     

Gravitational Shielding Effect in Gauge Theory of Gravity

In 1992, E.E. Podkletnov and R. Nieminen found that under certain conditions, ceramic superconductor with composite structure reveals weak shielding properties against gravitational force. In classical Newton's theory of gravity and even in Einstein's general theory of gravity, there are no grounds of gravitational shielding effects. But in quantum gauge theory of gravity, the gravitational shielding effects can be explained in a simple and natural way. In quantum gauge theory of gravity, gravitational gauge interactions of complex scalar field can be formulated based on gauge principle. After spontaneous symmetry breaking, if the vacuum of the complex scalar field is not stable and uniform, there will be a mass term of gravitational gauge field. When gravitational gauge field propagates in this unstable vacuum of the complex scalar field, it will decays exponentially, which is the nature of gravitational shielding effects. The mechanism of gravitational shielding effects is studied in this paper, and some main properties of gravitational shielding effects are discussed.     

Spontaneous symmetry breaking vacuum energy in cosmology

The gravitational effect of spontaneous symmetry breaking vacuum energy density is investigated by subtracting the flat space-time contribution from the energy in the curved space-time. We find that the remaining effective energy-momentum tensor is too small to cause the acceleration of the universe, although it satisfies the characteristics of dark energy. However, it could provide a promising explanation to the puzzle of why the gravitational effect produced by the huge symmetry breaking vacuum energy in the electroweak theory has not been observed, as it has a sufficiently small value (smaller than the observed cosmic energy density by a factor of 1032).     

PP-waves with torsion: a metric-affine model for the massless neutrino

In this paper we deal with quadratic metric-affine gravity, which we briefly introduce, explain and give historical and physical reasons for using this particular theory of gravity. We then introduce a generalisation of well known spacetimes, namely pp-waves. A classical pp-wave is a 4-dimensional Lorentzian spacetime which admits a nonvanishing parallel spinor field; here the connection is assumed to be Levi-Civita. This definition was generalised in our previous work to metric compatible spacetimes with torsion and used to construct new explicit vacuum solutions of quadratic metric-affine gravity, namely generalised pp-waves of parallel Ricci curvature. The physical interpretation of these solutions we propose in this article is that they represent a conformally invariant metric-affine model for a massless elementary particle. We give a comparison with the classical model describing the interaction of gravitational and massless neutrino fields, namely Einstein–Weyl theory and construct pp-wave type solutions of this theory. We point out that generalised pp-waves of parallel Ricci curvature are very similar to pp-wave type solutions of the Einstein–Weyl model and therefore propose that our generalised pp-waves of parallel Ricci curvature represent a metric-affine model for the massless neutrino.     

Scale invariance and inflation

A scale invariant model for early universe inflationary cosmology is developed. In order to realize dilatation invariance and spontaneous symmetry breaking we introduce two scalar fields, a dilaton and an inflaton. The scale invariant theory encompasses the Brans-Dicke and induced-gravity models as limiting cases. The model is solved numerically for a wide class of initial conditions. We find that the inflationary epoch is generically characterized by a two phase evolution of the universe: A single or double exponential era and a power-law expansion. Onset of gravity triggers double exponential evolution of the scale factor. We further examine inflation in the Brans-Dicke theory and find that scale invariance is restored in the course of spontaneous symmetry breaking.     

Gravitational effects on the SU(5) breaking phase transition for a Coleman-Weinberg potential

The gravitational coupling Rφ² plays a crucial role in determining the fate of the symmetric, high temperature state in a graud unified model with Coleman-Weinberg type symmetry breaking. If this term enters in the lagrangian with a negative sign, it drives the SU(5) breaking phase transition at a temperature of about 10¹⁰ GeV. If it enters with a positive sign, and in particular with the coefficient $\text{1}\text{12}$ which is required for a conformally invariant classical theory, this term prevents the phase transition from being completed, at least until temperatures are reached for which the SU(5) coupling becomes large.     

Dark Supersymmetry

We propose a model of Dark Supersymmetry, where a supersymmetric dark sector is coupled to the classically scale invariant non-supersymmetric Standard Model through the Higgs portal. The dark sector contains a mass scale that is protected against radiative corrections by supersymmetry, and the portal coupling mediates this scale to the Standard Model, resulting in a vacuum expectation value for the Higgs field and the usual electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. The supersymmetric dark sector contains dark matter candidates, and we show that the observed dark matter abundance is generated for a natural choice of parameters, while avoiding the current experimental bounds on direct detection. Future experiments can probe this scenario if the dark sector mass scale is not too high.     

A two-Higgs doublet model with remarkable CP properties

We analyze generalized CP symmetries of two-Higgs doublet models, extending them from the scalar to the fermion sector of the theory. We show that, other than the usual CP transformation, there is only one of those symmetries which does not imply massless charged fermions. That single model which accommodates a fermionic mass spectrum compatible with experimental data possesses a remarkable feature. Through a soft breaking of the symmetry it displays a new type of spontaneous CP violation, which does not occur in the scalar sector responsible for the symmetry breaking mechanism but, rather, in the fermion sector.     

General relativity as a conformally invariant scalar gauge field theory

The global symmetry implied by the fact that one can multiply all masses with a common constant is made into a local, gauge symmetry. The matter action then becomes Conformally invariant and it seems natural to choose for the corresponding scalar gauge field the action for a conformally invariant (massless) scalar field. The resulting conformally invariant theory turns out to be equivalent to general relativity. Since this means that the usual Einstein-Hilbert action is not, in fact, a true gauge action for the space-time geometry, the full theory ought to be supplied with such a term. Gauge-theoretic arguments and conformal invariance requirements dictate its form.     

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.     

Gluon condensates,chiral symmetry breaking and pion wave-function

We consider here chiral symmetry breaking in quantum chromodynamics arising from gluon condensates in vacuum. Through coherent states of gluons simulating a mean field type of approximation, we show that the off-shell gluon condensates of vacuum generate a mass-like contribution for the quarks, giving rise to chiral symmetry breaking. We next note that spontaneous breaking of global chiral symmetry links the four component quark field operator to the pion wave function. This in turn yields many hadronic properties in the light quark sector in agreement with experiments, leading to the conclusion that low energy hadron properties are primarily driven by the vacuum structure of quantum chromodynamics.     

Metric-affine scale-covariant gravity

We propose a gravitational theory based on the complete relaxing of Riemannian constraints (which force the connection to be symmetric and metric compatible) combined with the requirement of local conformal invariance. To reach this goal we generalize original Dirac's formalism of co-covariant calculus on spaces with arbitrary torsion and nonmetricity. The resulting gravitational theory turns out to be independent of the choice of measuring standards. Nevertheless there exists a mechanism of spontaneous gauge fixing through which all the masses in the universe could be generated. It is shown that field equations of the theory admit of a de Sitter solution with no cosmological constant, both in a vacuum case and in the presence of matter without proper hypermomentum. Various possible developments of the proposed theory are discussed in brief.