Gauge-boson mass matrix (${\mathcal{L}}_{\mathrm{mass}}=\frac{1}{2}{A}_{\mu }^a(M^2{)}_{ab}{A}^{b\mu }$)

With canonically normalized gauge field kinetic terms, a gauge-boson mass matrix is the real symmetric matrix of coefficients in the displayed quadratic mass term. Its eigenvalues are squared physical gauge boson masses. For a complex scalar field vacuum ${\Phi }_0$ in the Higgs mechanism, $(M^2{)}_{ab}=2\mathrm{Re}[(g_a{T}_a{\Phi }_0{)}^{†}(g_b{T}_b{\Phi }_0)]$. Thus for real $x_a$, $x^T{M}^{2}x=2\Vert {\sum }_a{x}_a{g}_a{T}_a{\Phi }_0{\Vert }^2\ge 0$: it is a Gram matrix and a positive semidefinite matrix. An unbroken generator annihilates the vacuum expectation value and lies in its null space. Diagonalizing the matrix identifies the massive and massless field combinations.

Two canonically normalized complex scalar fields of vacuum modulus $v$ and charge rows $R_1=(1,-q,0)$, $R_2=(0,1,-q)$ couple to three canonically normalized Abelian vector fields. The scalar kinetic terms give $g^2{v}^2|RB{|}^2$, so the physical squared-mass matrix includes the factor two shown. Its nonzero eigenvalues are $2g^2{v}^2(1+q^2\pm q)$ and its normalized null vector is $(q^2,q,1)/\sqrt{q^4+q^2+1}$. The two scalar phases are absorbed into the massive vector bosons, leaving one unbroken local Abelian generator. A compact global gauge-group interpretation additionally requires a compatible charge lattice.

For a Hermitian adjoint scalar field with kinetic term $\mathrm{tr}(D_{\mu }\Phi (D^{\mu }\Phi {)}^{†})$, use $D_{\mu }\Phi ={\partial }_{\mu }\Phi +ig[A_{\mu },\Phi ]$ and generators normalized by $\mathrm{tr}(t^a{t}^b)={\delta }^{ab}/2$. Expanding at a constant vacuum expectation value ${\Phi }_0$ and matching ${\mathcal{L}}_{\mathrm{mass}}=A_{\mu }^a(m^2{)}^{ab}{A}^{b\mu }/2$ gives the displayed expression. A real combination of generators $X=x_a{t}^a$ has quadratic form $2g^2\mathrm{tr}([X,{\Phi }_0{]}^{†}[X,{\Phi }_0])\ge 0$. Thus the massless directions are exactly the generators commuting with the vacuum.

For ${\Phi }_0=\mathrm{diag}({\lambda }_1,\dots ,{\lambda }_n)$, the two Hermitian generators associated with each matrix unit pair $E_{ij},E_{ji}$ have squared mass $g^2({\lambda }_i-{\lambda }_j{)}^2$. The surviving group is the centralizer of a Hermitian matrix in SU(n).

With positive canonical kinetic terms and nonzero coupling $g$, expansion of the covariant scalar kinetic term gives the displayed gauge-boson mass matrix. It is a Gram matrix: for real $c_a$, $c^T{M}_A^{2}c=g^2|{\sum }_a{c}_a{T}_a{\varphi }_0{|}^2$. Its kernel is the Lie algebra of the stabilizer subgroup of the vacuum. Thus its rank is $\dim G-\dim H$, and exactly that many gauge-field combinations acquire nonzero squared masses. Removal of these gauge-orbit directions does not remove accidental zero eigenvalues of the scalar mass matrix on the transverse complement.