Past exam of the theoretical physics I course of the University of Cambridge 2017 3 d Solution 2026-10-18
Write . The added term is , so the full potential simplifies toThe phase-rotation subgroup is reduced from U(1) to the two-element symmetry . More fully, the kinetic term and potential are invariant under independent reflections and , a internal symmetry generated by and complex conjugation. There is no continuous internal rotation symmetry for the explicit twofold anisotropy of a complex scalar field.
For fixed , positive makes the exponential grow with , so every global minimum has . On the real axis,ThusFor , the nonzero stationary points are the two global minima; the origin is unstable along the real direction. For the origin is the unique minimum, with zero real-direction quadratic curvature at the critical value . Selecting breaks the sign reversal that exchanges the two vacua, while complex conjugation remains unbroken.
Set , . Since , expansion givesEquivalently, in canonical fields , ,Both masses are positive throughout the broken phase . A broken discrete symmetry does not demand a massless Goldstone boson. At the radial mass tends to zero at a phase boundary, so a claim of strictly positive mass there would be incorrect. For completeness, expanding around the symmetric origin gives squared masses and for the canonical real and imaginary fields.