There are no Goldstone bosons in two dimensions

In four dimensions, it is possible for a scalar field to have a vacuum expectation value that would be forbidden if the vacuum were invariant under some continuous transformation group, even though this group is a symmetry group in the sense that the associated local currents are conserved. This is the Goldstone phenomenon, and Goldstone's theorem states that this phenomenon is always accompanied by the appearance of massless scalar bosons. The purpose of this note is to show that in two dimensions the Goldstone phenomenon can not occur; Goldstone's theorem does not end with two alternatives (either manifest symmetry or Goldstone bosons) but with only one (manifest symmetry).Work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 30819X and Grant No. 30738X.     

On free massless (pseudo)scalar quantum field theory in 1+1-dimensional space-time

We construct a consistent quantum field theory of a free massless (pseudo)scalar field in 1+1-dimensional space-times free of infrared divergences. We show that in such a quantum field theory (i) a continuous symmetry of (pseudo)scalar field translations is spontaneously broken, (ii) Goldstone bosons appear as quanta of a free massless (pseudo)scalar field and (iii) there is a non-vanishing spontaneous {magnetization}. In spite of the existence of a spontaneous {magnetization} the main inequality between vacuum expectation values of certain operators which have been used for the derivation of the Mermin–Wagner–Hohenberg theorem (C. Itzykson and J.-M. Drouffe, {Statistical field theory}, Vol. I, 1989, pp. 219–224) is fulfilled. Received: 19 December 2001 / Revised version: 31 March 2002 / Published online: 14 June 2002     

Vectorial versus axial Goldstone bosons

The Yukawa interactions of fermions with Goldstone bosons are given in closed form for an arbitrary renormalizable field theory to all orders of perturbation theory or for a general effective Lagrangian. Although the diagonal couplings are always pseudoscalar there is an important difference between spontaneously broken vector and axial-vector global symmetries. Compared to the axial case, the diagonal couplings of “vectorial” Goldstone bosons to charged fermions are suppressed by mixing angles or appear only via radiative corrections involving gauge fields. This general result may be relevant for the problem of flavour symmetry breaking in composite models.     

Spontaneous Lorentz violation via QED with non-exact gauge invariance

We reconsider an alternative theory of QED with the photon as a massless vector Nambu–Goldstone boson and show that the underlying spontaneous Lorentz violation caused by the vector field vacuum expectation value, while being superficial in gauge invariant theory, becomes physically significant in QED with a tiny gauge non-invariance. This leads, through special dispersion relations appearing for charged fermions, to a new class of phenomena, which could be of distinctive observational interest in particle physics and astrophysics. They include a significant change in the GZK cutoff for UHE cosmic-ray nucleons, stability of high-energy pions and W bosons, a modification of nucleon beta decays, and some other ones.     

Warm natural inflation

In warm inflation models there is the requirement of generating large dissipative couplings of the inflaton with radiation, while at the same time, not de-stabilising the flatness of the inflaton potential due to radiative corrections. One way to achieve this without fine tuning unrelated couplings is by supersymmetry. In this Letter we show that if the inflaton and other light fields are pseudo-Nambu–Goldstone bosons then the radiative corrections to the potential are suppressed and the thermal corrections are small as long as the temperature is below the symmetry breaking scale. In such models it is possible to fulfil the contrary requirements of an inflaton potential which is stable under radiative corrections and the generation of a large dissipative coupling of the inflaton field with other light fields. We construct a warm inflation model which gives the observed CMB-anisotropy amplitude and spectral index where the symmetry breaking is at the GUT scale.     

Spontaneous breakdown in two dimensional space-time

We prove that in two-dimensional space-time, symmetry transformations which are generated by Poincaré covariant currents can not be spontaneously broken. This is also the case with the dilation current. We argue that other currents which involve explicit space-time dependence might lead to spontaneously broken symmetries accompanied by massless Goldstone bosons. We construct a trivial example where this phenomenon occurs.     

Baryon sum rules and chiral symmetry breaking

In an SVZ-type approach sum rules for baryonic currents have been investigated, without radiative QCD corrections but with the inclusion of non-perturbative terms due to the non-vanishing vacuum expectation value of the quark-antiquark condensate. We give upper bounds for baryon masses, which allow a choice of optimal interpolating operators for low-lying baryon states. The results show that the mentioned vacuum expectation value not only sets the scale for parity splitting but also for the masses of the baryons directly. The alternative way of explicit symmetry breaking by quark masses has also been investigated in the same technical framework.     

Dynamics of vacuum excitations and quark confinement in quantum field theories

A unified approach to interacting vacuum excitations and quark confinement is formulated in quantum field theories with symmetry breakdown. Vacuum excitations are shown to be coherent clouds of Goldstone bosons or gauge bosons and are interpreted as new asymptotic extended particle states. They correspond to all dynamically possible space-time dependent Bose condensations of the Goldstone bosons in a given theory. Different configurations of vacuum excitations are connected to one another by a family of invariant boson transformations. As an example, the Nambu theory of interacting vortex strings is derived from a Nambu-Heisenberg quark-gluon field theory. The quarks can be completely confined to the strings while the gluons cluster in quantized magnetic flux bundles of penetration width m_v^?1 and provide a short range interaction force.     

Gauge invariance and the CPT and Lorentz violating induced Chern–Simons-like term in extended QED

The radiative induction of the CPT and Lorentz violating Chern–Simons (CS) term is reassessed. The massless and massive models are studied. Special attention is given to the preservation of gauge symmetry at higher orders in the background vector b _μ when radiative corrections are considered. Both the study of the odd and even parity sectors of the complete vacuum polarization tensor at one-loop order and a non-perturbative analysis show that this symmetry must be preserved by quantum corrections. As a complement we obtain the result that transversality of the polarization tensor does not fix the value of the coefficient of the induced CS term.     

Nucleon structure in the perturbative chiral quark model

We give an overview of recent applications of the perturbative chiral quark model (PCQM) in the analysis of the structure of the nucleon. The PCQM is based on an effective Lagrangian, where baryons are described by relativistic valence quarks and a perturbative cloud of Goldstone bosons as required by chiral symmetry. We discuss applications to the electromagnetic properties of the nucleon, to σ-term physics, to πN scattering including radiative corrections and to the strange form factors of the nucleon.     

Non-existence of Goldstone bosons with non-zero helicity

In a local relativistic quantum field theory a conserved covariant tensor current may lead to a spontaneously broken symmetry if it generates zero mass states from the vacuum (Goldstone theorem). Here it is shown that in addition it is necessary that these massless states have helicity zero if the underlaying state space has a positive metric.     

On the equivalence between sine-Gordon model and Thirring model in the chirally broken phase of the Thirring model

We investigate the equivalence between Thirring model and sine-Gordon model in the chirally broken phase of the Thirring model. This is unlike all other available approaches where the fermion fields of the Thirring model were quantized in the chiral symmetric phase. In the path integral approach we show that the bosonized version of the massless Thirring model is described by a quantum field theory of a massless scalar field and exactly solvable, and the massive Thirring model bosonizes to the sine-Gordon model with a new relation between the coupling constants. We show that the non-perturbative vacuum of the chirally broken phase in the massless Thirring model can be described in complete analogy with the BCS ground state of superconductivity. The Mermin–Wagner theorem and Coleman's statement concerning the absence of Goldstone bosons in the 1+1-dimensional quantum field theories are discussed. We investigate the current algebra in the massless Thirring model and give a new value of the Schwinger term. We show that the topological current in the sine-Gordon model coincides with the Noether current responsible for the conservation of the fermion number in the Thirring model. This allows one to identify the topological charge in the sine-Gordon model with the fermion number. Received: 16 December 2000 / Revised version: 23 April 2001 / Published online: 13 June 2001     

UL(N) x UR(N)-Invariant Four-Fermion Interactions and Nambu-Goldstone Mechanism at Finite Temperature

In a chiral U_L(N) x U_R(N) fermion model of NJL-form, we prove that, if all the fermions are assumed to have equal masses and equal chemical potentials, then at the finite temperature T below the symmetry restoration temperature T_c, there will be N² massive scalar composite particles and N² massless pseudoscalar composite particles (Nambu-Goldstone bosons). This shows that the Goldstone theorem at finite temperature for spontaneous symmetry breaking U_L(N) x U_R(N) → U_L+R(N) is valid and consistent with the real-time formalism of thermal field theory in this model.     

Spontaneous breaking of scale invariance in a supersymmetric model

The phase structure of a large N, O(N) supersymmetric model in three dimensions is studied. Of special interest is the spontaneous breaking of scale invariance which occurs at a fixed value of the coupling constant, λ₀=λ_c=4π. In this phase the bosons and fermions acquire a mass while a Goldstone boson (dilaton) and Goldstone fermion (“dilatino”) are dynamically generated as massless bound states. The absence of renormalization of the dimensionless coupling constant λ₀ leaves these Goldstone particles massless.     

Radiative corrections in laser-dressed atoms: formalism and applications

The dressing of atomic states in a strong laser field modifies the structure of the incoherently scattered fraction of the laser intensity, which is described to a good approximation by the Mollow spectrum. The incoherent spectrum is generated by the fluctuations of the atomic dipole moment about its expectation value, and the positions of the peaks are approximately given by the energy differences between the dressed atomic energy levels. In this paper, we investigate radiative corrections received by the dressed states. Our calculations are motivated by the quest to understand in detail the interplay of a bound electron dressed by the highly populated laser mode and its interaction with the vacuum modes. Alternatively, this may be seen as an electron experiencing modified stimulated and spontaneous radiative corrections in a vacuum tailored by the laser field. We obtain dressed self-energy shifts that depend on the Rabi flopping frequency (and in turn on the laser intensity) and on the detuning of the laser field relative to the atomic resonance frequency. We find that the dressed radiative corrections differ in a nontrivial manner from the radiative shifts of the ‘bare’ atomic states.     

Natural electroweak breaking from a mirror symmetry

We present "twin Higgs models," simple realizations of the Higgs boson as a pseudo Goldstone boson that protect the weak scale from radiative corrections up to scales of order 5-10 TeV. In the ultraviolet these theories have a discrete symmetry which interchanges each standard model particle with a corresponding particle which transforms under a twin or a mirror standard model gauge group. In addition, the Higgs sector respects an approximate global symmetry. When this global symmetry is broken, the discrete symmetry tightly constrains the form of corrections to the pseudo Goldstone Higgs potential, allowing natural electroweak symmetry breaking. Precision electroweak constraints are satisfied by construction. These models demonstrate that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, stabilizing the weak scale does not require new light particles charged under the standard model gauge groups.     

Fermions and bosons in a two-dimensional world

We derive the formal equivalence of a free massless two-dimensional theory and a free massless two-dimensional boson theory constructed from the bilinear products of the self-same fermion theory. The sense of this equivalence is investigated. Using a box normalization, it is found that the fermion states are Glauber coherent states of bosons, where the boson vacuum is the ground state of the charge sector corresponding to the given fermion state. The massless boson is the Goldstone boson and the degenerate vacua are the ground states of the various charge sectors. A complete operator identity between fermion and boson operators can be obtained, but to do this an additional boson operator must be introduced which cannot be defined in terms of bilinear products of the fermion operators. Doing this makes the charge spectrum continuous.     

A scenario for SUSY QCD

The following scenario is proposed for supersymmetric QCD: With massless (s) quarks, there is a continuum of vacua, including one with all global symmetries unbroken; with (s) quarks of mass m, there is a unique vacuum, no Goldstone bosons, but a rich spectrum of scalars and fermions of mass O(m). Consistency with various non-perturbative requirements is exhibited.     

Numerical consistency check between two approaches to radiative corrections for neutrino masses and mixings

We briefly outline the two popular approaches on radiative corrections to neutrino masses and mixing angles, and then carry out a detailed numerical analysis for a consistency check between them in MSSM. We find that the two approaches are nearly consistent with a discrepancy factor of 4.2% with running vacuum expectation value (VEV) (13% for scale-independent VEV) in mass eigenvalues at low-energy scale but the predictions on mixing angles are almost consistent. We check the stability of the three types of neutrino models, i.e., hierarchical, inverted hierarchical and degenerate models, under radiative corrections, using both approaches, and find consistent conclusions. The neutrino mass models which are found to be stable under radiative corrections in MSSM are the normal hierarchical model and the inverted hierarchical model with opposite CP parity. We also carry out numerical analysis on some important conjectures related to radiative corrections in the MSSM, viz., radiative magnification of solar and atmospheric mixings in the case of nearly degenerate model having same CP parity (MPR conjecture) and radiative generation of solar mass scale in exactly two-fold degenerate model with opposite CP parity and non-zero U_e3 (JM conjecture). We observe certain exceptions to these conjectures. We find a new result that both solar mass scale and U_e3 can be generated through radiative corrections at low energy scale. Finally the effect of scaledependent vacuum expectation value in neutrino mass renormalisation is discussed     

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.