Dynamics of non-integrable phases and gauge symmetry breaking

Journal Article · Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1989 · Ann. Phys. (N.Y.); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-4916(89)90015-8· OSTI ID:6391277

Hosotani, Y

On a multiply-connected space the non-integrable phase factor/ital P/ exp(ig..integral../ital A//sub ..mu..//ital dx//sup ..mu..//r brace/), a path-ordered line integral along anon-contractable loop, becomes a dynamical degree of freedom in gauge theory.The dynamics of such non-integrable phases are examined in detail with themost general boundary condition for gauge fields and fermions. Sometimesthe dynamics of the non-integrable phases compensate the arbitrariness inthe boundary condition imposed, leading to the same physics results. Inother cases the dynamics of the non-integrable phases induce spontaneousbreaking of non-Abelian gauge symmetry. In other words the physically realizedsymmetry of the system differs from, and can be either greater or smaller than,the symmetry of the boundary condition. The effective potential for thenon-integrable phases in the /ital SU/(/ital N/) gauge theory on/ital S//sup 1//direct product//ital R//sup 1/ital d//minus/2/is computed in the one-loop approximation. It is shown that the gauge symmetryis dynamically broken in the presence of fermions in the adjoint representation,depending on the value of the boundary condition parameter./copyright/ 1989 Academic Press, Inc.

• Research Organization: School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455(US)
• OSTI ID: 6391277
• Journal Information: Ann. Phys. (N.Y.); (United States), Vol. 190:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
DYNAMICS
FERMIONS
FEYNMAN PATH INTEGRAL
GAUGE INVARIANCE
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
MINKOWSKI SPACE
SU GROUPS
SYMMETRY BREAKING
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
UNITARITY
VACUUM STATES
WILSON LOOP
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
INTEGRALS
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
MECHANICS
PARTICLE MODELS
SPACE
SYMMETRY GROUPS
645400* - High Energy Physics- Field Theory