Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-advanced-quantum-field-theory-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2022/3/a/ii/solution
Past exam of the advanced quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2022 3 a ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Put . Completing the square in the scalar potential givesSince , its global minima form the vacuum manifoldHere denotes the positive square root of the parameter . The origin is a local maximum, not a ground state. Choose . Its stabilizer subgroup is the SO(2) subgroup of rotations in the plane, so the stated SO(3) global symmetry in field theory is spontaneously broken to SO(2).
Write , , . The kinetic terms stay canonically normalized, while the scalar mass matrix isEquivalently, the quadratic scalar potential is . Therefore the particle masses areThe two angular Goldstone bosons match . The radial displacement changes and costs potential energy, giving the massive Higgs mode. These are tree-level masses; the Goldstone theorem protects the angular zero-mass modes in the exact global theory.
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