 Solution

Goldstone's theorem states that a spontaneously broken continuous internal global symmetry in field theory of a local relativistic quantum field theory produces massless Goldstone bosons. For a Lorentz invariance vacuum breaking $G$ to its stabilizer $H$, there are $\dim G-\dim H$ independent symmetry-required massless directions. Additional accidentally massless modes are possible. A gauge redundancy does not obey this physical-state counting, and nonrelativistic systems need not have one independent mode per broken generator.

For the classical proof, consider real scalar fields ${\varphi }_i$ with a positive canonical kinetic term and an invariant smooth scalar potential $V$. An infinitesimal generator $T^a$ satisfiesLet $v$ be a stationary vacuum and differentiate this identity with respect to ${\varphi }_j$. At $v$, the term proportional to ${\partial }_{i}V$ vanishes, leavingThe Hessian matrix ${\mathsf{M}}^2$ is the scalar mass matrix. An unbroken generator has $T^{a}v=0$; broken generators span the tangent space of the vacuum manifold $G/H$. Each independent nonzero tangent vector is a zero eigenvector of ${\mathsf{M}}^2$. The quadratic Euler-Lagrange equations in these directions are $\square {\pi }^a=0$, giving the massless dispersion relation ${\omega }^2={\mathbf{p}}^2$. This proves the classical result and explains why the Goldstone bosons describe motion along the degenerate minima rather than against a restoring curvature.