Spontaneous symmetry breaking and pseudo-Goldstone bosons in curved space-time
In this thesis some aspects of spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetries are studied in curved space-time, with emphasis on properties of Pseudo-Goldstone bosons (PGB's). To this end, the author makes use of the method of effective potential V/sub eff/. The model considered is a SU(3) gauge theory of adjoint scalars with spontaneous breaking. The author first reviews the PGB phenomenon in flat Minkowski space. The model curved space-time is the Einstein static universe R/sup 1/ x S/sup 3/ with constant scalar curvature R. A method that both respects the symmetry of the curved manifold and the transformation properties of the fields is established for determining Laplacians in the evaluation of V/sub eff/. It is found that quadratic, curvature dependent terms are generated in the effective potential for PGB's to one-loop order. These terms contribute non-trivially to the PGB masses in both the strong and weak gravitational limits. He also draws attention to, and illustrates, a subtlety involved in establishing the coupling of Nambu-Goldstone bosons to the scalar curvature in theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking in the background of curve space-time with a constant curvature R.
- Research Organization:
- Minnesota Univ., Minneapolis (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6771002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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