Related papers: (Non-)Aligned gauges and global gauge symmetry bre…
The association of broken symmetries with phase transitions is ubiquitous in condensed matter physics: crystals break translational symmetry, magnets break rotational symmetry, and superconductors break gauge symmetry. However, despite the…
The paper investigates the spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetries in gauge theories from a philosophical angle, taking into account the fact that the notion of a spontaneously broken local gauge symmetry, though widely employed in…
The fate of symmetries at high temperature determines the dynamics of the very early universe. It is conceivable that temperature effects favor symmetry breaking instead of restoration. Concerning global symmetries, the non-linear sigma…
The concepts of symmetry, symmetry breaking and gauge symmetries are discussed, their operational meaning being displayed by the observables {\em and} the (physical) states. For infinitely extended systems the states fall into physically…
Symmetry, in particular gauge symmetry, is a fundamental principle in theoretical physics. It is intimately connected to the geometry of fibre bundles. A refinement to the gauge principle, known as ``spontaneous symmetry breaking'', leads…
Symmetry is one of the most general and useful concepts in physics. A theory or a system that has a symmetry is fundamentally constrained by it. The same constraints do not apply when the symmetry is broken. The quantitative determination…
Theories with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking provide an interesting alternative to the scenario in which the soft terms of the low-energy fields are induced by gravity. These theories allow for a natural suppression of flavour…
Gauge symmetries play a central role, both in the mathematical foundations as well as the conceptual construction of modern (particle) physics theories. However, it is yet unclear whether they form a necessary component of theories, or…
We consider the role that gauge symmetry breaking terms play on the continuum limit of gauge theories in three dimensions. As a paradigmatic example we consider scalar electrodynamics in which $N_f$ complex scalar fields interact with a…
We discuss models where N=1 global supersymmetry is spontaneously broken, at the classical level, in the presence of non-anomalous gauge interactions. We take such models as effective theories, valid up to some suitable scale and arising…
An SU(2) lattice gauge theory with two doublets of complex scalar fields is considered. All continuous symmetries are identified and, using the nonperturbative methods of lattice field theory, the phase diagram is mapped out by direct…
On basis of an algebraic analysis of symmetry breaking in general and the Higgs mechanism in the standard model of elementary particles we generalize the concept of symmetry breaking to systems with non-compact groups but not necessarily…
Gauge symmetry plays a key role in our description of subatomic matter. The vanishing photon mass, the long-ranged Coulomb law, and asymptotic freedom are all due to gauge invariance. Recent years have seen tantalizing progress in the…
We propose a new point of view to gauge theories based on taking the action of symmetry transformations directly on the coordinates of space. Via this approach the gauge fields are not introduced at the first step, and they can be…
Spontaneous symmetry breaking has been observed in lattice simulations of five-dimensional gauge theories on an orbifold. This effect is reproduced by perturbation theory if it is modified to account for a finite cut-off. We present a…
We construct and analyze theories with a gauge symmetry in the ultraviolet of the form $G \otimes G_b$, in which the vectorial, asymptotically free $G_b$ gauge interaction becomes strongly coupled at a scale where the $G$ interaction is…
Strongly-coupled gauge theories are an important ingredient in the construction of many extensions of the standard model, particularly for models of electroweak symmetry breaking in which the Higgs boson is a composite object. There is a…
We propose a mechanism of Higgsless gauge symmetry breaking with a large mass hierarchy. We consider a 5D gauge theory on an orbifold $S^1/Z_2$. The gauge symmetry is broken by orbifolding and also nontrivial boundary conditions at fixed…
We construct $N=1$ supergravity models where the gauge symmetry and supersymmetry are both spontaneously broken, with naturally vanishing classical vacuum energy and unsuppressed Goldstino components along gauge non-singlet directions. We…
Most phenomenologically acceptable supersymmetric models imply breaking of supersymmetry in a separate sector of fields introduced just for this purpose. Supersymmetry breaking is transferred to the Standard Model due to a certain…