Gauge symmetry breaking in gauge theories -- in search of clarification
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Publication:2348944
DOI10.1007/S13194-012-0061-YzbMATH Open1314.81106arXiv1107.4664OpenAlexW2170996438MaRDI QIDQ2348944FDOQ2348944
Authors: Simon Friederich 
Publication date: 16 June 2015
Published in: European Journal for Philosophy of Science (Search for Journal in Brave)
Abstract: The paper investigates the spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetries in gauge theories from a philosophical angle, taking into account the fact that the notion of a spontaneously broken local gauge symmetry, though widely employed in textbook expositions of the Higgs mechanism, is not supported by our leading theoretical frameworks of gauge quantum theories. In the context of lattice gauge theory, the statement that local gauge symmetry cannot be spontaneously broken can even be made rigorous in the form of Elitzur's theorem. Nevertheless, gauge symmetry breaking does occur in gauge quantum field theories in the form of the breaking of remnant subgroups of the original local gauge group under which the theories typically remain invariant after gauge fixing. The paper discusses the relation between these instances of symmetry breaking and phase transitions and draws some more general conclusions for the philosophical interpretation of gauge symmetries and their breaking.
Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1107.4664
Recommendations
General and philosophical questions in quantum theory (81P05) Symmetry breaking in quantum theory (81R40)
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Cited In (19)
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- Does the Higgs Mechanism Exist?
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- Title not available (Why is that?)
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- Bundle geometry of the connection space, covariant Hamiltonian formalism, the problem of boundaries in gauge theories, and the dressing field method
- Quantum symmetry breaking and physical inequivalence: the case of ferromagnetism
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