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Assume $\lambda >0$ and $v>0$. The minima of the scalar potential have $|\varphi |=v$. Choose the vacuum expectation value ${\varphi }_0=v{e}_3$. Its stabilizer subgroup consists exactly of matrices $\mathrm{diag}(R_2,1)$ with $R_2\in O(2)$, soThe continuous spontaneous symmetry breaking is $SO(3)\to SO(2)$ and has two broken generators. For the full orthogonal group, the cross-product notation requires the gauge connection to transform in the adjoint, as an axial vector: $R[A{]}_{\times }{R}^{-1}=[(\det R)RA{]}_{\times }$. The scalar field transforms as the ordinary vector $R\varphi$. This axial transformation of orthogonal gauge connections makes the stated covariant derivative transform correctly even for $\det R=-1$; assigning an ordinary-vector transformation to the connection would fail.

Near this nonzero vacuum, unitary gauge removes the two angular Goldstone bosons and gives $\varphi =(0,0,v+h)$. PutThese are the physical charged gauge bosons, neutral massless gauge boson, and radial scalar field. Directly substituting into the original gauge field strengths givesThe scalar field kinetic term has no radial-vector cross term, because ${\partial }_{\mu }\varphi$ and ${\mathbf{A}}_{\mu }\times \varphi$ lie in perpendicular internal directions. The complete physical gauge-scalar Lagrangian becomesFor each real vector the mass term is $m^2{A}_{\mu }{A}^{\mu }/2$, while for the complex pair it is $m_W^2{W}_{\mu }^{+}{W}^{-\mu }$. Hence the adjoint triplet Higgs spectrum isThe radial scalar also has $m_h^2=\lambda v^2$ in the question's potential normalization. The two lost scalar modes supply the longitudinal polarizations of the massive vectors through the Higgs mechanism.

For the lepton kinetic terms let $P_L=(1-{\gamma }^5)/2$, $P_R=(1+{\gamma }^5)/2$, and denote the left neutral triplet entry by $n_L=c_{\alpha }{\nu }_L+s_{\alpha }{N}_L$. The missing singlet is the perpendicular combinationIts overall sign is immaterial. The real orthogonal matrix $\left(\begin{array}{cc}{c}_{\alpha }& s_{\alpha }\\ -s_{\alpha }& c_{\alpha }\end{array}\right)$ is orthogonal, so the sum of the kinetic terms of $n_L$ and $L^S$ is ${\bar{\nu }}_{L}i/\partial {\nu }_L+{\bar{N}}_{L}i/\partial N_L$ with no mixed terms. Combining with the right triplet gives ordinary Dirac field kinetic terms for $E^{+},N,e$, and only a left-handed kinetic term for the massless neutrino. This is orthogonal completion of mixed neutral lepton kinetic terms. The heavy charged field is $E^{+}$, as printed in the PDF, not the TeX's $N^{+}$.

To compute the charge commutator, the canonical anticommutation relations implyThe quartic terms cancel on reordering the fermions. Thus well-defined normal-ordered integrated bilinears obey fermionic bilinear charge algebra, $[Q_C,Q_D]=Q_{[C,D]}$. Left/right mixed commutators vanish since $P_L{P}_R=0$.

In either triplet, writeThe displayed current has a factor two relative to the projected bilinears, since $1\mp {\gamma }^5=2P_{L,R}$. Consequently its charges are $T^{+}=2(Q_K^L+Q_K^R)$ and $T^{-}=(T^{+}{)}^{†}$. The neutral combinations have canonical anticommutators because $c_{\alpha }^2+s_{\alpha }^2=1$. Applying the matrix commutator giveswhere $Q_{\ell }=e\int :(E^{+†}{E}^{+}-e^{†}e):$ is the electromagnetic charge in the lepton sector. The neutrino, heavy neutral lepton and singlet contribute zero. This establishes triplet charged-current closure on electromagnetic charge, with the requested proportionality independent of normalization choices for the weak Noether charges. The PDF correctly writes $J^{-}=(J^{+}{)}^{†}$; the TeX repeats $J^{+}$ incorrectly. Equal-time algebra does not require conservation of the separate fermionic weak currents after symmetry breaking. For full gauge-theory charges, the corresponding charged-boson contributions must also be included.

There is a sign inconsistency in the printed model. For the ordinary cross product let $J(a)z=a\times z$. The vector triple-product identity gives $[J(a),J(b)]=J(a\times b)$. Consequently the printed $D_{\mu }={\partial }_{\mu }+eJ(A_{\mu })$ has gauge curvatureIts gauge curvature cannot instead contain the printed negative quadratic term. For a noncommuting pure gauge potential for this gauge covariant derivative, $F^{+}=0$ whereas $F^{-}=-2e{A}_{\mu }\times A_{\nu }\ne 0$. Thus the printed gauge kinetic term assigns a nonzero value to a connection obtained by applying the gauge-field transformation law to the zero connection. Literally the printed action has global rotations but not the requested local triplet gauge symmetry. The cross-product convention for an adjoint covariant derivative makes the minimal repair explicit: change the gauge field strength quadratic term to a plus sign, retaining the printed gauge covariant derivative. Changing the sign in the gauge covariant derivative instead would be another consistent convention. The remaining calculation uses the first repair.

The corrected theory has local SO(3) gauge symmetry, equivalently the adjoint-field realization of the SU(2) Lie algebra; its adjoint scalar fields and gauge fields are insensitive to the center of a group of SU(2). Explicitly, $\Phi \mapsto R(x)\Phi$ andBoth $D_{\mu }\Phi$ and $F_{\mu \nu }$ transform as triplets, so their dot products and the scalar potential are invariant. Assume $\lambda >0$, $e\ne 0$ and take $v\ge 0$ without loss of generality. For $v>0$ the minima have ${\Phi }^2=v^2$. Choose the scalar-field vacuum ${\Phi }_0=v(0,0,1)$, whose stabilizer consists of rotations around the third axis: the residual gauge symmetry is SO(2), locally U(1).

In unitary gauge write $\Phi =(0,0,v+h)$, $A_{\mu }=A_{\mu }^3$ and $W_{\mu }^{\pm }=(A_{\mu }^1\mp i{A}_{\mu }^2)/\sqrt{2}$. These are the neutral massless gauge field, two charged massive gauge fields and a real radial scalar field. DefineSubstitution gives $F_{\mu \nu }^3=f_{\mu \nu }-ie{C}_{\mu \nu }$ and $(F_{\mu \nu }^1\mp i{F}_{\mu \nu }^2)/\sqrt{2}=G_{\mu \nu }^{\pm }$. The entire physical-field Lagrangian density is thereforeIn particular $D_{\mu }\Phi =(e(v+h)A_{\mu }^2,-e(v+h)A_{\mu }^1,{\partial }_{\mu }h)$; this directly verifies the scalar field kinetic and vector mass terms. Expanding the scalar potential gives $\lambda v^2{h}^2/2+\lambda v{h}^3/2+\lambda h^4/8$. Comparing the quadratic terms with standard real scalar field and charged-vector mass terms yields the adjoint triplet Higgs spectrum,This also rewrites the purely vector interactions, which are already contained in the displayed gauge field strengths rather than omitted from the theory.

The original symmetry remains unbroken at $v=0$. The unique minimum is then $\Phi =0$, with three massless gauge fields and three massless real scalar field components; the quartic scalar field interaction remains. The physical degrees of freedom number $3\times 2+3=9$. At $v>0$ the two broken generators supply two Goldstone bosons, eaten to give longitudinal gauge-boson polarizations of the charged vectors. The physical count is $2\times 3+2+1=9$: two massive vectors, one massless vector and one radial scalar field. The scalar components eaten in unitary gauge are not additional physical particles.

For the broken phase all interactions containing the physical scalar field areMultiplying interaction coefficients by $i$ and differentiating with respect to the external fields includes the identical-field factorials. The scalar vertices of an adjoint triplet Higgs model areFor example, the $h^3$ rule contains $3!$, whereas the $hh{W}^{+}{W}^{-}$ rule contains only $2!$ from its two identical scalar fields. There are no $hAA$ or $hhAA$ vertices: the radial scalar field is neutral under the residual U(1). There is no derivative scalar-vector vertex in this physical spectrum in unitary gauge.

For completeness, if the unbroken phase is chosen, its physical scalar fields are the three components ${\varphi }_a$, not a single radial $h$. Expanding its gauge-covariant kinetic term givesWith all momenta incoming and Fourier transform convention $e^{-ipx}$, the three unbroken-phase rules areThe first rule follows by differentiating once on each possible scalar: for $a=3,b=1,c=2$, the interaction is $e{A}_{\mu }^3({\varphi }_1{\partial }^{\mu }{\varphi }_2-{\varphi }_2{\partial }^{\mu }{\varphi }_1)$, which fixes the momentum sign. The remaining rules follow from the quadratic gauge interaction and $-\lambda ({\varphi }_a{\varphi }_a{)}^2/8$. There are no unbroken-phase cubic scalar field Feynman vertices.

A stable symmetry-breaking minimum requires $\lambda >0$ and $m^2<0$. Put $v^2=-m^2/\lambda >0$. The common scalar potential can then be written, up to a constant, asIts minima form the sphere $\Phi \cdot \Phi =v^2$. Choose the vacuum direction ${\Phi }_0=(0,0,v{)}^T$. If instead $m^2>0$ with positive $\lambda$, the minimum is at the origin and the assumed nonzero vacuum expectation value is not a stable vacuum of these models.

In the ungauged theory, the internal symmetry is global $O(3)$; its connected part is $SO(3)$. Constant orthogonal transformations preserve both the kinetic term and the potential. The chosen vacuum is invariant under $O(2)$ acting on its first two components, so the continuous breaking is $SO(3)\to SO(2)$ with two broken generators. The vacuum orientations are genuinely different degenerate global vacua.

The global triplet scalar symmetry breaking is visible directly in the fluctuation masses. Write $\Phi =({\pi }_1,{\pi }_2,v+h{)}^T$. The potential Hessian isThe quadratic Lagrangian is thereforeThere is one radial scalar of mass $m_h^2=2\lambda v^2=-2m^2$ and two massless Goldstone bosons. The two Goldstone modes describe motion tangential to the vacuum sphere. They remain physical, since a global rotation has only constant parameters and cannot remove arbitrary spacetime-dependent fluctuations. All three original real-scalar degrees of freedom remain. Interactions persist: the shifted potential is $V-V_{\min }=\frac{\lambda }{4}(2vh+h^2+{\pi }_1^2+{\pi }_2^2{)}^2$, containing cubic and quartic terms. Masslessness of the angular modes is protected by the exact continuous symmetry through Goldstone's theorem.

In the gauged theory, the three-component real field is the vector representation of local $SO(3)$, equivalently the Adjoint representation of $SU(2)$. The center of $SU(2)$ acts trivially on this field, so both descriptions have the same local field content and perturbative spectrum. Take $(t^a{)}_{bc}=-i{ϵ}^{abc}$, for which $[t^a,t^b]=i{ϵ}^{abc}{t}^c$. The covariant kinetic term and the gauge kinetic term are invariant under local transformations with the associated connection transformation. The scalar inversion $\Phi \mapsto -\Phi$, with the gauge field unchanged, is also a discrete invariance of the displayed action.

The vacuum leaves rotations about its third axis unbroken. The residual gauge group is $SO(2)$, or the corresponding $U(1)$ subgroup in the $SU(2)$ description. Expanding the covariant kinetic term about ${\Phi }_0$ givesThus the gauge-boson mass matrix is $g^2{v}^2\mathrm{diag}(1,1,0)$. The third generator annihilates the vacuum, while the first two do not. The masses are $m_{B^1}=m_{B^2}=gv$, $m_{B^3}=0$, and $m_h=\sqrt{2\lambda }v$.

The quadratic derivative mixing displays what happens to the Goldstone fields. With the generator convention just chosen,Local rotations can set the two angular fields to zero in unitary gauge. Then $\Phi =(0,0,v+h{)}^T$ andThe two Goldstone modes supply the longitudinal polarizations of the two massive vector bosons. They do not survive as additional physical massless scalars. The radial scalar is still physical, and $B^3$ retains only two transverse polarizations. This adjoint triplet Higgs spectrum realizes the Higgs mechanism; the gauge group is only partially broken, so one massless gauge boson remains.

The degree-of-freedom check isIn contrast, the global theory has just the three scalar modes, including its two physical Goldstone bosons. A vacuum expectation value in the local theory is a choice of gauge-fixed description: the direction can be changed by gauge transformations and is not itself an observable. Gauge-independent masses and the physical degree count express the actual effect. Both theories retain Lorentz symmetry in the constant scalar vacuum.