Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-major-option-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/1/c/solution
Past exam of the theoretical physics major option course of the University of Oxford 2018 1 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
A spherical three-momentum ultraviolet cutoff givesFor and , the asymptotic expansion isIn particular, the leading ultraviolet divergence is quartic. For , exactly.
Write . Under the proposed identification, the scalar potential from a field-dependent momentum cutoff is . It is even and nonnegative, and its derivative with respect to is away from zero. Consequently its only global minimum is at : this contribution alone does not cause spontaneous symmetry breaking. At large it grows quartically. At small with fixed positive , however,Thus the quartic sketch is an asymptotic shape, not the exact small-field behavior for a massive original field. Identifying a regulator with a new field is an additional modeling prescription; an actual effective potential also depends on the new field's dynamics and any other allowed terms.
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