Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/iii/paper-303/3/b/i/solution

For and , minimizing the -invariant potential gives
The free energy has the full symmetry, but choosing one point on this sphere leaves only the rotations fixing that point. This is spontaneous symmetry breaking, . The tangent directions along the sphere cost no potential energy and are the massless Goldstone modes predicted by the Goldstone theorem.

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