Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-advanced-quantum-field-theory-for-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/3/a/iii/solution

This cannot be the sole symmetry-breaking sector of the Standard Model. Its gauge-boson mass matrix has two zero eigenvalues, so besides the electromagnetic photon it predicts an extra massless neutral gauge boson. Every linear combination of and , including the combination normally called , is massless. The observed massive Z boson is a concrete contradiction. Choosing differently cannot change these two zero eigenvalues.
A real scalar triplet can occur as an additional sector, but a further vacuum expectation value, for example that of a Higgs doublet, is then necessary to obtain the observed neutral gauge boson mass pattern. This does not rescue the triplet-only model posed here.

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