Patterns of Symmetry Breaking


Book Description

The conceptofspontaneous symmetry breaking plays a fundamental role in contemporary physics. It is essential for the description of degenerate ground states, massless modes, and topological defects. Examples are abundant in condensed matter physics, atomic and particle physics, as well as in astro physics and cosmology. In fact, spontaneous symmetry breaking can be re garded as a cornerstone ofa whole branch ofphysics which intersects the above mentioned traditionally distinct fields. In the year 2000 the European Science Foundation (ESF) started the Pro gramme "Cosmology in the Laboratory" (COSLAB), with the goal to search for and to develop analogies betweencondensed matterphysics, particle physics, and cosmology. Not surprisingly, spontaneous symmetry breaking is among the most useful notions in that endeavour. It has been decided that in the sec ond year of the Programme a School should be held in order to work out and deliver to a wide audience of students synthetic overviews of achievements and of current research topics of COSLAB. This idea has been supported by the Scientific and Environmental Affairs Division of NATO by including the School in the renowned series of its Advanced Study Institutes. The School, entitled" Patterns of Symmetry Breaking", was held in Cracow during 16-28 September 2002. It gathered 17 lecturers and about 60 students. The present volume contains notes ofmost of the lectures from that School. We hope that of the physics of spon it will convey to the reader the breadth and the beauty taneous symmetry breaking.




New Dualities of Supersymmetric Gauge Theories


Book Description

This book reviews a number of spectacular advances that have been made in the study of supersymmetric quantum field theories in the last few years. Highlights include exact calculations of Wilson loop expectation values, and highly nontrivial quantitative checks of the long-standing electric-magnetic duality conjectures The book starts with an introductory article presenting a survey of recent advances, aimed at a wide audience with a background and interest in theoretical physics. The following articles are written for advanced students and researchers in quantum field theory, string theory and mathematical physics, our goal being to familiarize these readers with the forefront of current research. The topics covered include recent advances in the classification and vacuum structure of large families of N=2 supersymmetric field theories, followed by an extensive discussion of the localisation method, one of the most powerful tools for exact studies of supersymmetric field theories. The quantities that have been studied in this way are partition functions, expectation values of line operators, and supersymmetric indices. The book also reviews recently discovered connections between SUSY field theories in four dimensions and two-dimensional conformal field theory. These connections have a counterpart in relations between three-dimensional gauge theories and Chern-Simons theory; the book’s closing chapters explore connections with string theory.




Origin Of Mass And Strong Coupling Gauge Theories, The (Scgt06) - Proceedings Of The 2006 International Workshop


Book Description

This volume includes discussion on new dynamical features in the light of (deconstruted/latticized) extra dimensions, holographic QCD, Moose/hidden local symmetry, and so on. New insights into the QCD as a prototype of strong coupling gauge theories as well as in its own right, particularly in hot and dense matter are included.




The Origin of Mass and Strong Coupling Gauge Theories


Book Description

This volume includes discussion on new dynamical features in the light of (deconstruted/latticized) extra dimensions, holographic QCD, Moose/hidden local symmetry, and so on. New insights into the QCD as a prototype of strong coupling gauge theories as well as in its own right, particularly in hot and dense matter are included. Sample Chapter(s). The String in an Excited Baryon (230 KB). Contents: The String in an Excited Baryon (G ''t Hooft); Mesons and Baryons from String Theory (S Sugimoto); Toy Model for Mixing of Two Chiral Nonets (A H Fariborz et al.); Strongly Interacting Matter at RHIC (C Nonaka); QED Corrections to Hadron and Quark Masses (Y Namekawa); Little Higgs M-Theory (H-C Cheng); Toward a Top-Mode ETC (H Fukano & K Yamawaki); On Cyclic Universes (P H Frampton); Large Gauge Hierarchy in GaugeOCoHiggs Unification (K Takenaga); Partially Composite Two Higgs Doublet Model (P Ko); and other papers. Readership: Graduate students, academics and researchers in theoretical particle physics."




Symmetry Breaking


Book Description

The intriguing mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking is a powerful innovative idea at the basis of most of the recent developments in theoretical physics, from statistical mechanics to many-body theory to elementary particles theory; for infinitely extended systems a symmetric Hamiltonian can account for non symmetric behaviours, giving rise to non symmetric realizations of a physical system. In the first part of this book, devoted to classical field theory, such a mechanism is explained in terms of the occurrence of disjoint sectors and their stability properties and of an improved version of the Noether theorem. For infinitely extended quantum systems, discussed in the second part, the mechanism is related to the occurrence of disjoint pure phases and characterized by a symmetry breaking order parameter, for which non perturbative criteria are discussed, following Wightman, and contrasted with the standard Goldstone perturbative strategy. The Goldstone theorem is discussed with a critical look at the hypotheses that emphasizes the crucial role of the dynamical delocalization induced by the interaction range. The Higgs mechanism in local gauges is explained in terms of the Gauss law constraint on the physical states. The mathematical details are kept to the minimum required to make the book accessible to students with basic knowledge of Hilbert space structures. Much of the material has not appeared in other textbooks.







The Theory of the Jahn-Teller Effect


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive discussion of the Jahn-Teller Effect (JTE), focusing on the boson-fermion interaction. While current research is concerned with measuring and calculating ever more sophisticated and complex manifestations of the JT effect, the present volume takes away the epicycles of the theory and focuses on the symmetry dilemma at its core. When fermions and bosons meet, they get entangled and form a new dynamic reality. According to the rules of Molecular Symmetry, this reality is limited to a small set of patterns, with degeneracy cardinalities: 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The novelty of the book is that it adopts a unique mathematical technique, known as the Bargmann-Fock representation, and treats all degeneracies in detail. So far, this method was only applied to the simplest doublet case therefore its extension to the entire range of cases offers a new unified perspective. This volume will help the reader acquire a clear understanding of the JT effect, discover its universal mechanism and it will be a great tool for researchers and graduates working on this topic.




Symmetry Breaking


Book Description

The new edition of this well received primer on rigorous aspects of symmetry breaking presents a more detailed and thorough discussion of the mechanism of symmetry breaking in classical field theory in relation with the Noether theorem. Moreover, the link between symmetry breaking without massless Goldstone bosons in Coulomb systems and in gauge theories is made more explicit. A subject index has been added and a number of misprints have been corrected.