Dynamics of the Higgs sector in SU(2) x U(1) gauge theories

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1980

OSTI ID:5163582

Lytel, R S

The weak and electromagnetic interactions of leptons and quarks are described by the Wenberg model. This model is a spontaneously broken gauge theory based on the Lie group SU(2) x U(1). The gauge symmetry is broken by scalar (Higgs) fields or vacuum condensates of quark-antiquark pairs. The research presented in this thesis concerns the dynamics of the Higgs sector in SU(2) x U(1) gauge theories. Three distinct problems are discussed. The first is the study of a hypothetical particle, the axion. Various experiments in which axions could have been detected are analyzed, including reactor and beam dump experiments. It is concluded that axions do not exist as physical particles. The second part of this research concerns the dynamics of the Goldstone bosons that result from spontaneously broken gauge theories. It is shown that an accidental chiral symmetry of the Higgs sector is responsible for zeroth order mass relations among the vector bosons. This observation allows a new description of higher-order corrections to mass relations in the theory. A new method is given and applied to the study of correlations in several variations of the Weinberg model. The final topic is a study of the Weinberg model at finite temperature. A critical temperature is defined and calculated using an effective potential. The computation is performed in several gauges to verify the gauge indepndence of the result obtained. Physical motivation for the existence of a critical temperature is also discussed.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5163582
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
AXIONS
GOLDSTONE BOSONS
WEINBERG LEPTON MODEL
MASS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
VECTOR MESONS
CRITICAL TEMPERATURE
LEPTONS
QUARKS
SU GROUPS
SU-2 GROUPS
SYMMETRY BREAKING
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
BOSONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
HADRONS
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MESON RESONANCES
MESONS
PARTICLE MODELS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POSTULATED PARTICLES
RESONANCE PARTICLES
SYMMETRY GROUPS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
TRANSITION TEMPERATURE
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