2005/07/26 by Michael Grady · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Gauge (firearms) #Gauge anomaly #Gauge boson #Gauge fixing #Gauge symmetry #Gauge theory #Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory #Higgs boson #Higgs field #Introduction to gauge theory #Lattice gauge theory #Law #Mathematical physics #Phase transition #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum gauge theory #Quantum mechanics #Spontaneous symmetry breaking #Supersymmetric gauge theory #Symmetry breaking #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Theoretical physics #Unitary state #hep-lat
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2005.09.001
published in Physics Letters B 626(1-4), 161-166 (Elsevier BV) · 11 pages, LaTex, 4 eps figures
arxiv created 2005/07/26 · openalex publication_date 2005/09/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The 3-d Z(2) lattice gauge-Higgs theory is cast in a partial axial gauge leaving a residual Z(2) symmetry, global in two directions and local in one. It is shown both analytically and numerically that this symmetry breaks spontaneously in the Higgs phase and is unbroken in the confinement phase. Therefore they must be separated everywhere by a phase transition, in contradiction to a theorem by Fradkin and Shenker. It relied on a fully fixed unitary gauge, which prohibits this phase transition explicitly. Thus the unfixed gauge theory is not, in this case, equivalent to the unitary-gauge version.