Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Mechanics

2006/09/21 by Jasper van Wezel, Jeroen van den Brink · 1 voice · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.class-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1119/1.2730839

published as Am. J. Phys., 75, 635-638 (2007) · 4 pages, 0 figures

arxiv created 2006/09/21 · arxiv updated 2010/04/29

Abstract

We present a clear and mathematically simple procedure explaining spontaneous symmetry breaking in quantum mechanical systems. The procedure is applicable to a wide range of models and can be easily used to explain the existence of a symmetry broken state in crystals, antiferromagnets and even superconductors. It has the advantage that it automatically brings to the fore the main players in spontaneous symmetry breaking: the symmetry breaking field, the thermodynamic limit, and the global excitations of the thin spectrum.

Cited by

• Symmetry Breaking through Superselection by Boundary Conditions

Discussions

• One interesting case I know where it's crucial the order of the limits doesn't commute is quantum spontaneous symmetry breaking (Eq 12 in the linked paper), but totally unclear to me if it's relevant [bsky, 1 points, 1 comments]