LectureLecture III:III: HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking
The Higgs Mechanism
ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.1III.1 SymmetrySymmetry BreakingBreaking One example is the infinite ferromagnet the nearest neighbor interaction between spins or magnetic dipole moments is invariant under the group of spatial rotations SO(3)
Above the Curie temperature, T>TC, in the absence of a magnetic field we have the paramagnetic phase, where we encounter an exact symmetry of the medium spontaneous magnetization is 0 as no preferred direction in space exists SO(3) symmetry Now we impose an external magnetic field that tends to align spins The SO(3) symmetry is broken down to SO(2) symmetry of rotations about the external field direction the full symmetry is restored when the field is turned off
For temperatures T
In the presence of an external magnetic field that explicitly breaks the SO(3) symmetry, a particular direction for the the spontaneous magnetization is selected
In contrast to the paramagnetic case, the spontaneous magnetization does not return to 0 when the magnetic field is turned off For rotational invariance to be broken spontaneously, it is crucial that the ferromagnet is infinite in extent Then rotations from one degenerate ground state another would require a rotation of an infinite number of dipoles (analog to statement in field theory that degenerate vacua lie in distinct Hilbert spaces) ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.2III.2 TheThe HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism
In the SM 2 complex scalar fields are introduced
Its self interactions provide a mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) giving masses to gauge bosons & fermions
It also gives rise to a new scalar particle: the H-boson
F We extend the Lagrangian by adding are L and L 2 2 L = D V (3.1) μ kinetic potential energy 2 † F where || denotes and L is Yukawa coupling of to fermions (see later)
Most general renormalizable form of scalar potential V is: 2 4 2 V = μ + (3.2)
ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.2III.2 TheThe HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism V() Write 2 scalars as + = (3.3) 0 where + and 0 are each complex fields with QN’s: T T3 1/2Y Q + 1/2 1/2 1/2 1 V() 0 1/2 -1/2 1/2 0
In a classical theory with μ2<0, 2 1 μ2 = ground state of ||2 occurs at 2 Quantum analog is a non-vanishing expectation value of ||2 in physical vacuum state μ2 Appearance of this non-vanishing vacuum expectation value selects a preferred direction in weak isospin-hypercharge space this spontaneously breaks the SU(2) U(1) symmetry ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen,L IFT BergenY III.2III.2 TheThe HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism
It is convenient to introduce modulus 2 v μ = of vacuum expectation value of || 2 2 Conventional perturbation theory is formulated for fields with zero vaccum expectation value (VEV) So it is appropriate to separate out VEV & redefine scalar doublet i(x) 0 (x) = exp (3.4) 2v (v + H(x) 2 )
where the real fields 1(x), 2 (x), 3(x) and H(x) have zero VEV By finite gauge transformations under SU(2)L with (x) = (x) / v eliminate explicit appearance of (x) in L
0 i(x) (3.5) (x) exp (x) = (3.5) 2 (v + H(x) 2 )
ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.2III.2 TheThe HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism In this unitary gauge degrees of freedom vanish but essentially reappear as longitudinal components of W± & Z, when these acquire masses they have been “eaten” by gauge fields
The Goldstone theorem states that massless spin-0 particles in the theory, whenever a continuous symmetry is broken
Physically, they embody zero-energy excitations that were previously described by symmetry transformations
For global symmetry breaking such Goldstone bosons are inescapable but in gauge symmetry breaking by Higgs mechanism something special happens: There are 3 Goldstone bosons represented by fields They are gauged away from scalar sector to reappear in the gauge field sector as longitudinal components of W± & Z0 this procedure gives them masses
ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.2III.2 TheThe HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism The covariant derivative on the isodoublet field in terms of A,W & Z is:
+ + D = + ieQA + 1 ig ( W + W + ig (1 x )Q Z (3.6) ) μ μ μ 2 μ μ Z 2 3 W μ
So the couplings are e, g, gZ for EM, charged current & neutral current weak interactions, respectively
Here we have defined the raising & lowering operators (3.7) + + 01 00 = 2T = = 2T = 00 & 10 (3.8) (3.8) + 01 0 + + So for example e = = , = 0 e = 0, = e 00 1 e e e In the unitary gauge (x) has only one neutral component (3.9) 1 0 (x) = 2 v + H(x) ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.2III.2 TheThe HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism The kinetic energy term of the scalar field becomes
1 igW+ v + H(x) μ ( ) D (x) = 1 2 (3.10) μ 2 (3.10) H(x) 1 g Z (v + H(x) ) μ 2 Z μ Now the scalar field Lagrangian L becomes: 2 2 2 L = 1 H(x) + 1 g2W+Wμ v + H(x) + 1 g2 Z Zμ v + H(x) 2 ( μ 4 )μ ( 8 Z μ) ( ) 2 (3.11) V 1 v + H(x) 2 ( ) The v2 terms provide W & Z boson mass terms M2 W+Wμ + 1 M2 Z Zμ (3.12) W μ 2 Z μ with M = 1 gv W 2 (3.13) M = 1 g v = M cos Z 2 Z W W (3.14)
ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.2III.2 TheThe HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism The photon remains massless
The kinetic & potential energy terms in scalar field Lagrangian L give 2 4H3 (x) H4 (x) 1 H(x) 1 2μ2 H2 (x) + 1 μ2v2 1 + + (3.15) 2 ( μ 2 ( ) ) 4 3 4 v v This describes the physical Higgs scalar boson of mass
2 H H H M = 2μ H (3.16) H
with cubic & quartic self interactions H H H The Higgs field has no electromagnetic interactions! Its interactions with other gauge fields are given by cubic & quartic terms 1 2 + μ 1 2 μ 2 ( g W W + g Z Z (H (x) + 2vH(x) (3.17)) ) 4 μ 8 Z μ which are completely specified by the gauge couplings ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.2III.2 TheThe HiggsHiggs MechanismMechanism We will consider physical implications of Higgs particle interactions later
Note that SSB based on a VEV for + would have unacceptable physical consequences
Final result of the Higgs mechanism: vacuum everywhere can emit or absorb neutral colorless quantum of Higgs field that carries weak isospin & hypercharge W±, Z0 & fermions that couple to H(x) acquire masses but & gluons that cannot couple to it remain massless
ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.3III.3 LeptonLepton MassMass GenerationGeneration
Spontaneous symmetry breaking will generate the -mass, if we add a Yukawa interaction between lepton & fields that is renormalizable & invariant under SU(2)LU(1)Y gauge transformations † L = G ( ) + ( ) (3.18) Y R L L R where G is a further coupling constant & + = and = (3.19) L 0 L Substituting the unitary gauge form of (x), we get v v L = G G H (3.20) Y = e,μ, 2 = e,μ, 2 For example, considering the 1st family, the e acquires mass of v m = G e e (3.21) 2 (3.21) as well as an electron coupling to the Higgs boson ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.3III.3 LeptonLepton MassMass GenerationGeneration
1v= 2G Replacing Ge by 2 me/v and using F the H-e coupling is m 1 L = e H = 24 G m H e e e F e e e (3.22) v -6 The coupling is proportional to me i.e. very small: Ge=2.910 In a similar way we can write the interactions of the higgs boson to μ field and the field The Higgs mechanism for generating masses introduces arbitrary coupling parameters for each fermion mass i.e. no fundamental understanding of mass values
We have not included the neutrinos here, since we assumed m=0 thus no R state exists that would be required to produce a mass term and have an interaction with the Higgs field So, in the SM the lepton states are e μ & e ,μ , R R R (3.23) e , μ , ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006L L L G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.4III.4 QuarkQuark MassesMasses && MixingMixing Quark masses are also generated by Yukawa couplings to the scalar fields in a similar way as for the leptons
However, since u and & quarks both have L-handed & R-handed states the Yukawa interaction is more complicated here We need to introduce 9 complex couplings G for the Q=2/3 quarks ij and 9 complex couplings Gij for the Q=-1/3 quarks
The Higgs couples to quark weak eigenstates (u1,u2,u3) & (d1,d2,d3) that are different from the mass eigenstates (u,c,t) & (d,s,b)
they are related by unitary transformations UL,R & DL,R performed separately for L-handed & R-handed states The interaction of the quarks with the vacuum expectation value of the scalar field yields quark mass terms u d 1 1 (3.24) u ,u ,u Mu u + hc d ,d ,d Md d + hc ( 1 2 3 2 ) & ( 1 2 3 2 ) R R u (3.25) 3 d ITRG lecture week Oslo L06-03-2006 G. Eigen,3 IFTL Bergen III.4III.4 QuarkQuark MassesMasses && MixingMixing where v v (3.26) Mu = G & Md = G ij ij ij ij 2 2 (3.27) For the weak eigenstates the mass matrices are not diagonal each depends on 9 complex parameters
With the help of the unitary transformations UL,R & DL,R the mass matrix is diagonalized to obtain the observed masses
mu, mc, mt and md, ms, mb
In weak interactions mediated by the W bosons (charged current) the different unitary transformations introduce family mixing d 1 d u ,u ,u μ d = u, c, t U†D μ s ( 1 2 3 2 ) ( L L ) L (3.28) b d 3 L L We introduce the mixing matrix V U†D L L (3.29) ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen III.4III.4 QuarkQuark MassesMasses && MixingMixing Using the mixing matrix V, the charge current weak interactions for quarks are d Vij W μ (3.30) (u, c, t V s) L qi b i qj L By convention, the mixing is ascribed completely to Q=-1/3 states
by defining d' d s' = V s b' b (3.31) Then the quark weak eigenstates are L L u c t & u ,c ,t ,d ,s ,b d' , s' , b' R R R R R R L L L (3.32) weak isospin doublets weak isospin singlets The important prediction of the gauge theory is that all fermion doublets & singlets, whether leptons or quarks, enter the weak interaction with the same electroweak coupling strengths g & g’ ITRG lecture week Oslo 06-03-2006 G. Eigen, IFT Bergen