Chiral symmetry and chiral-symmetry breaking

Conference · Wed Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6365701

Peskin, M E

These lectures concern the dynamics of fermions in strong interaction with gauge fields. Systems of fermions coupled by gauge forces have a very rich structure of global symmetries, which are called chiral symmetries. These lectures will focus on the realization of chiral symmetries and the causes and consequences of thier spontaneous breaking. A brief introduction to the basic formalism and concepts of chiral symmetry breaking is given, then some explicit calculations of chiral symmetry breaking in gauge theories are given, treating first parity-invariant and then chiral models. These calculations are meant to be illustrative rather than accurate; they make use of unjustified mathematical approximations which serve to make the physics more clear. Some formal constraints on chiral symmetry breaking are discussed which illuminate and extend the results of our more explicit analysis. Finally, a brief review of the phenomenological theory of chiral symmetry breaking is presented, and some applications of this theory to problems in weak-interaction physics are discussed. (WHK)

• Research Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 6365701
• Report Number(s): SLAC-PUB-3021; CONF-8208104-2; ON: DE83008912
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645303* -- High Energy Physics-- Particle Invariance Principles & Symmetries-- Applications to Strong Interactions-- (-1987)
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
BOSONS
CHIRAL SYMMETRY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FUNCTIONS
GOLDSTONE BOSONS
INTERACTIONS
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PARTICLE MODELS
POSTULATED PARTICLES
STRONG INTERACTIONS
SUPERSYMMETRY
SYMMETRY
SYMMETRY BREAKING
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
WEAK INTERACTIONS