Higgs mechanism

In the Higgs mechanism, gauge fields associated with broken generators acquire longitudinal polarizations and masses by absorbing Goldstone modes. Gauge fields of the unbroken subgroup remain massless.

The phrase “absorbing” describes a rearrangement of degrees of freedom, not a collision in which a gauge boson swallows another particle. The gauge symmetry remains a redundancy of the description. A chosen vacuum expectation value leaves a smaller subgroup manifest, while gauge-invariant observables describe the physical masses.

A one-field calculation isolates the mechanism. In an Abelian Higgs model, write a complex scalar field locally as $\Phi =(v+H)e^{i\theta }/\sqrt{2}$, use $D_{\mu }={\partial }_{\mu }-ie{A}_{\mu }$, and define $B_{\mu }=A_{\mu }-{\partial }_{\mu }\theta /e$. ThenThe second term contains a Proca field mass $m_B=ev$ and its interactions with the radial Higgs boson. A local gauge transformation removes $\theta$ from the scalar field but leaves its information in the longitudinal vector polarization. The electroweak symmetry breaking calculation applies this idea to three broken directions.

A real four-vector vacuum ${\Phi }_0=v{e}_4$ leaves the rotations of its perpendicular three-space unbroken. In a Hermitian generator basis split into two commuting SU(2) triples with $(T^a+T^{a+3})e_4=0$, define $A^{a,\pm }=(A^a\pm A^{a+3})/\sqrt{2}$. For scalar kinetic term $|D\Phi {|}^2$ and canonical vector kinetic terms, its vacuum value is $g^2{v}^2{\sum }_a(A^{a,-}{)}^2/2$. Comparison with $m^2{A}^2/2$ gives three massless and three mass-$|gv|$ gauge bosons.

The factor multiplying the scalar kinetic term matters: replacing it by $|D\Phi {|}^2/2$ at fixed numerical $v$ changes the massive value to $|gv|/\sqrt{2}$. The unbroken global subgroup is SO(3), rather than its simply connected SU(2) cover. The Spin(4) double cover accounts for that central identification.

In their 1964 paper, François Englert and Robert Brout showed that gauge bosons associated with generators that rotate the chosen vacuum acquire masses while gauge invariance is maintained. Their discussion included both scalar and fermionic models.^[ref]

Independently, Peter Higgs exhibited a massive vector and a surviving massive scalar field by linearizing a simple gauge theory. His paper explicitly distinguishes this classical calculation from a proof for the full quantized theory. These 1964 mechanisms supplied an ingredient for the later electroweak interaction, rather than the complete Standard Model.^[ref]

In four spacetime dimensions a massless vector has two physical polarizations, while a Proca field has three. Before rearrangement, the electroweak sector has four vector fields and four real Higgs doublet components, hence twelve propagating degrees of freedom. In the broken description, W bosons of both charges and the Z boson contribute nine, the photon contributes two, and the radial Higgs boson contributes one. The three angular scalar components supply the three additional longitudinal polarizations. Gauge components and constraint variables are excluded from both counts. The gluon sector is unaffected.

At tree level and energies much greater than a gauge-vector mass, an amplitude with longitudinal external gauge bosons equals the corresponding amplitude with their would-be Goldstone bosons, up to conventional external-state phases and relative $O(m_V/E)$ corrections for a nonzero leading amplitude. In a renormalizable gauge, the broken-symmetry identities relate $k_{\mu }{\mathcal{M}}^{\mu }$ to $m_V{\mathcal{M}}_{\chi }$; inserting ${\epsilon }_L^{\mu }=k^{\mu }/m_V+O(m_V/E)$ explains the result. Loop-level versions include field-normalization factors. This is different from an equivalence theorem for field redefinitions.

The Goldstone-boson equivalence theorem reduces high-energy electroweak longitudinal scattering to scalar scattering. Without the radial Higgs boson, a nonlinear sigma-model description gives an amplitude of order $s/v^2$. In the corresponding linear scalar model, the contact and Higgs-exchange terms give, for the charged-to-neutral Goldstone channel,The growing terms cancel, leaving $-m_H^2/v^2$ at high energy. Thus the Higgs mechanism supplies both vector masses and the interactions required for controlled longitudinal scattering. The tree expression is not valid as an unresummed approximation arbitrarily close to the Higgs pole.

The gauge-covariant kinetic term of the Higgs doublet gives $M_W^2(1+H/v{)}^2{W}_{\mu }^{+}{W}^{-\mu }+M_Z^2(1+H/v{)}^2{Z}_{\mu }{Z}^{\mu }/2$. Differentiation with respect to the external fields yields Feynman rules $2i{M}_V^2{g}_{\mu \nu }/v$ for one Higgs boson and two matching massive electroweak gauge bosons, and $2i{M}_V^2{g}_{\mu \nu }/v^2$ for two Higgs bosons and the same pair. Identical neutral fields supply combinatorial factors. The neutral radial Higgs boson has no corresponding elementary coupling to photons at tree level.

A Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $SO(3)$ and a real three-component scalar field in its defining vector representation. With a symmetry-breaking scalar potential, a nonzero vector vacuum leaves its $SO(2)$ stabilizer subgroup unbroken. The two transverse internal directions produce massive gauge bosons.

For an orthogonal group gauge transformation $R\in O(3)$, a scalar vector transforms as $\varphi \mapsto R\varphi$. The gauge connection belongs to the Adjoint representation, identified with axial vectors: the displayed cross-product identity makes its homogeneous transformation $A\mapsto (\det R)RA$. The matrix connection also has the usual inhomogeneous derivative term. Thus $D\varphi$ transforms as an ordinary vector, including under improper orthogonal transformations. Treating both fields as ordinary vectors would fail because a cross product changes sign under an orientation reversal. A nonzero vector vacuum has stabilizer subgroup $O(2)$; its connected part is $SO(2)$.

For a gauged real scalar triplet with vacuum $v{e}_3$ and generators $(t^a{)}_{bc}=-i{ϵ}^{abc}$, the covariant kinetic term yields gauge-boson squared masses $g^2{v}^2\mathrm{diag}(1,1,0)$. Two Goldstone bosons become longitudinal vector modes through the Higgs mechanism. One radial scalar, two massive three-polarization vector fields and one massless two-polarization field remain. The physical count $3+3\cdot 2=1+2\cdot 3+2=9$ is unchanged. In unitary gauge, the scalar kinetic term includes $\frac{1}{2}{g}^2(v+h{)}^2[(B^1{)}^2+(B^2{)}^2]$.

The scalar potential $V(\Phi )=\lambda ({\Phi }^T\Phi -v^2{)}^2/4$, with $\lambda >0$, is invariant under the SO(3) group. For $v>0$, its vacuum manifold is a sphere. Canonical scalar normalization gives radial mass squared $2\lambda v^2$.

In the SO(3) vector Higgs model, a real scalar field $\Phi \in {\mathbb{R}}^3$ transforms as $\Phi \mapsto R\Phi$. Its gauge covariant derivative is $D_{\mu }\Phi ={\partial }_{\mu }\Phi +g{\mathbf{A}}_{\mu }\times \Phi$ for generators acting by the cross product.

If $D_{\mu }\Phi =0$ in the SO(3) vector Higgs model, antisymmetry of the gauge potential implies ${\partial }_{\mu }|\Phi {|}^2=0$. On a local patch with nonzero constant norm, unitary gauge aligns the field with a fixed axis. The connection and gauge field strength then take values in the axis stabilizer; curvature can remain nonzero. Global alignment can require several bundle patches.

An $SU(2)$ gauge theory with a real adjoint scalar and a vacuum $\varphi =v{e}_3$ breaks to $U(1)$. The Higgs mechanism gives two charged vectors mass $gv$, leaves one massless neutral vector, and gives the radial scalar mass $\sqrt{2\lambda }v$ for the quartic potential. Unlike the Standard Model electroweak interaction, this model has no additional hypercharge field and no massive neutral Z boson.

For an adjoint vacuum expectation value proportional to $\mathrm{diag}(1,1,-2)$, the centralizer is $(SU(2)\times U(1))/{\mathbb{Z}}_2$. Four gauge bosons remain massless and four acquire a common mass. This differs from Fundamental-Higgs breaking of SU(3) to SU(2).

For generators normalized by $\mathrm{Tr}(t^a{t}^b)={\delta }^{ab}/2$, a constant adjoint vacuum expectation value ${\Phi }_0$ gives this matrix. A generator commuting with ${\Phi }_0$ corresponds to a massless gauge boson.

Electroweak symmetry breaking is the Higgs-field breaking $SU(2{)}_L\times U(1{)}_Y\to U(1{)}_Q$. It gives masses to the $W$ and $Z$ bosons while leaving the photon massless.

With the hypercharge convention $Q=T_3+Y$, the lower component of the Higgs doublet has $T_3=-1/2$ and $Y=1/2$. Thus $Q⟨\varphi ⟩=0$: the vacuum expectation value is electrically neutral. This is why one combination of the neutral gauge fields remains the massless photon, as the electroweak doublet gauge-boson mass matrix shows.

Continue the chosen Higgs field potential example with $g=3/5$ and $g^{\prime }=4/5$. The tree-level electroweak gauge-boson masses are $m_W=72\mathrm{GeV}$, $m_Z=120\mathrm{GeV}$ and $m_A=0$. In the $(W^3,B)$ basis,Its orthonormal eigenvectors $(4/5,3/5{)}^T$ and $(3/5,-4/5{)}^T$ have eigenvalues zero and $14400{\mathrm{GeV}}^2$. Thus $\cos {\theta }_W=3/5=m_W/m_Z$. This is an exact model check, not a fit to measured electroweak interaction parameters.

A diagonal charged-fermion Yukawa coupling expands asThe Yukawa coupling remains a free parameter: the mechanism relates a fermion mass to its scalar interaction but does not predict the numerical mass. This example concerns charged fermions; the minimal Standard Model has no right-handed neutrino and does not account for neutrino oscillations without an extension.

An electroweak doublet with $Y=-1/2$ has component charges $(0,-1)$ under $Q=T^3+Y$. Its upper-component vacuum therefore preserves electromagnetism. The canonical covariant-derivative term gives $m_W=g_{2}v/2$, $m_Z=v\sqrt{g_1^2+g_2^2}/2$ and a massless photon. Neutral eigenvectors are proportional to $(g_2,-g_1)$ for $Z$ and $(g_1,g_2)$ for the photon. This is the conjugate-doublet convention to the usual positive-hypercharge Higgs doublet and gives the same mass ratio and electric coupling.

A thermal change in the electroweak Higgs sector as the early Universe cools. Its order and strength depend on the particle content, couplings and effective description. A polynomial landau free energy is a simplified model and does not, by itself, establish a model-independent Higgs-mass bound.

If $\lambda /a=x=m_H^2/m_0^2$ and $c/a=A+x$, then $\gamma =[72{\pi }^{2}x(A+x){]}^{-1}$ and ${\varphi }^{\ast }/T^{\ast }=(6\pi x{)}^{-1}$. Requiring both $\gamma <1$ and ${\varphi }^{\ast }>T^{\ast }$ gives $x_{-}<x<1/(6\pi )$, where $x_{-}=[-A+\sqrt{A^2+1/(18{\pi }^2)}]/2$. This is an open interval for the specified model. Failing the strength condition does not alone eliminate its first-order jump.

Renormalization-group evolution can change a Higgs squared-mass parameter from positive at a high input scale to negative at lower scales, making a symmetry-breaking scalar expectation energetically favorable. In the Minimal supersymmetric Standard Model, the large top Yukawa coupling can drive the up-type Higgs soft squared mass downwards as the scale is lowered. Actual breaking also requires the other Higgs-potential parameters to give a stable suitable minimum; the running of one mass alone is not sufficient.

The electroweak scale is the characteristic energy associated with electroweak symmetry breaking. With the Standard Model Higgs doublet normalized by $⟨H⟩=(0,v/\sqrt{2}{)}^T$, its vacuum expectation value satisfies $v=(\sqrt{2}{G}_F{)}^{-1/2}\simeq 246\mathrm{GeV}$ and $m_W=gv/2$. Its smallness compared with possible ultraviolet scales motivates the hierarchy problem.

For a Higgs doublet with hypercharge $1/2$ and vacuum expectation value $(0,v/\sqrt{2}{)}^T$, its gauge-covariant kinetic term gives the neutral gauge-boson mass matrixin the $(W^3,B)$ basis. Its eigenvalues are zero and $(g^2+g^{\prime 2})v^2/4$, and the Weinberg angle rotation gives the photon and Z boson. The two charged electroweak gauge bosons have $m_W^2=g^2{v}^2/4$. The zero eigenvalue expresses the unbroken electric-charge gauge symmetry.

For the Higgs doublet vacuum $(0,v{)}^T/\sqrt{2}$, the neutral gauge-boson mass matrix in $(W^3,B)$ is $(v^2/4)\left(\begin{array}{cc}{g}^2& -g{g}^{\prime }\\ -g{g}^{\prime }& g^{\prime 2}\end{array}\right)$. Its zero eigenvector is proportional to $(g^{\prime },g)$, the photon; the perpendicular vector is the Z boson. The charged fields $W^{\pm }=(W^1\mp i{W}^2)/\sqrt{2}$ have the stated W boson mass. Thus $m_W=m_Z\cos {\theta }_W$, where ${\theta }_W$ is the Weinberg angle. The unbroken charge generator annihilates the vacuum and explains the zero eigenvalue.

Unitary gauge uses a gauge transformation to remove the Goldstone fields from the Higgs multiplet, leaving the physical radial Higgs excitation and massive vector fields.

For a real orthogonal gauge group representation, the tangent vectors to the vacuum orbit are $v_a=T_a{\varphi }_0$. Choose an independent basis of these vectors. Under an infinitesimal gauge transformation, the derivative of the displayed slice conditions with respect to the broken gauge parameters is the Gram matrix $v_a^T{v}_b$. It is invertible on the independent tangent directions, so the implicit function theorem selects this unitary gauge locally near the vacuum. The remaining scalar fluctuations are orthogonal to the gauge orbit, and their derivative has no quadratic mixing with the massive gauge fields. The statement is local and does not assert a global gauge slice through zeros of the scalar field.