1996/10/31 by Sergei G. Matinyan, Berndt Müller
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/bf02551526
published as Found.Phys. 27 (1997) 1237-1255 · 12 pages, contribution to a special volume of ``Foundations in Physics'' commemorating L.C. Biedenharn (minor corrections)
arxiv created 1996/11/04 · openalex publication_date 1997/09/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We discuss the intimate connection between the chaotic dynamics of a classical field theory and the instability of the one-loop effective action of the associated quantum field theory. Using the example of massless scalar electrodynamics, we show how the radiatively induced spontaneous symmetry breaking stabilizes the vacuum state against chaos, and we speculate that monopole condensation can have the same effect in non-Abelian gauge theories.