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The bino is the spin-one-half gaugino of the hypercharge $U(1{)}_Y$ gauge group. Its adjoint representation is the singlet $(1,1,0)$, so it has no hypercharge of its own. After electroweak symmetry breaking, it can mix with the neutral wino and higgsinos into neutralinos.

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.

The electroweak interaction is the $SU(2{)}_L\times U(1{)}_Y$ gauge theory that unifies the weak and electromagnetic interactions.

An instructive tension motivates the unification: the photon is massless, while the W boson and Z boson are massive; electromagnetic interaction and weak interaction also have different observed low-energy strengths and chiral couplings. A gauge theory can relate their interactions while the Higgs field gives different masses after electroweak symmetry breaking. The resulting theory predicts relationships between processes, not merely a common name for observed phenomena.

Its useful organizing principle is the combination of weak isospin and hypercharge. The surviving electromagnetic generator is $Q=T_3+Y$ in the convention used here. The photon and Z boson are different mixtures of neutral gauge fields, while the charged current uses the charged combinations. The electroweak doublet gauge-boson mass matrix explains why one neutral mixture stays massless. At low energies, a massive W boson propagator instead produces the approximate Fermi interaction, withHere $g$ is the $SU(2{)}_L$ gauge coupling and $v$ the Higgs doublet vacuum expectation value. The inverse squared mediator mass suppresses low-energy weak rates. Unification does not require setting $g$ equal to the electromagnetic coupling $e$: their relation is $e=g\sin {\theta }_W$.

A striking experimental consequence is a neutral current in addition to the familiar charged current. The Gargamelle experiment tests this extra channel through visible charged secondaries, with a background problem fundamentally different from directly identifying a Z boson. The muon-neutrino electron recoil spectrum shows how the same Weinberg angle enters another process quantitatively.

An electroweak scalar triplet transforms in the three-dimensional adjoint representation of $SU(2{)}_L$. A complex triplet of hypercharge one has components of electric charge two, one and zero, and its neutral component can couple to two left-handed lepton doublets.

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.

The Standard Model lepton doublet $L=({\nu }_L,e_L{)}^T$ has hypercharge $-1/2$, the electron singlet $e_R$ has $-1$, and the Higgs doublet has $1/2$. Therefore $-y_e\bar{L}\varphi e_R+h.c.$ is gauge-invariant even though a bare ${\bar{e}}_L{e}_R$ mass is not. The vacuum expectation value generates a Dirac mass $|y_e|v/\sqrt{2}$. In unitary gauge, the Higgs boson coupling is $-(m_e/v)h\bar{e}e$ after rephasing the electron.

A Higgs chiral doublet is a weak-doublet chiral superfield containing a Higgs complex scalar field, a higgsino and an auxiliary field. In the MSSM, $H_u$ has hypercharge $+1/2$ and $H_d$ has hypercharge $-1/2$. Their paired charges enable higgsino anomaly cancellation and the holomorphic need for two Higgs chiral doublets.

Set $\epsilon =i{\tau }_2$, whose Pauli matrix identity is $\epsilon {\tau }_i^{\ast }=-{\tau }_i\epsilon$. Exponentiation gives $\epsilon U^{\ast }=U\epsilon$ for $U\in SU(2)$. Hence complex conjugating a Higgs doublet and multiplying by $\epsilon$ restores the fundamental representation of $SU(2)$, while reversing hypercharge. A Higgs field of hypercharge $1/2$ yields a conjugate doublet of hypercharge $-1/2$. Its product ${\tilde{\varphi }}^{†}L$ with a lepton doublet $L$ of hypercharge $-1/2$ transforms in the trivial representation of the whole electroweak gauge group. At vacuum $(0,v{)}^T/\sqrt{2}$, this composite is $v{\nu }_L/\sqrt{2}$.

The Standard Model Higgs field is a complex $SU(2{)}_L$ doublet of hypercharge $1/2$. Its nonzero vacuum expectation value triggers the Higgs mechanism.

The Higgs field is a scalar field: its components carry internal weak isospin and hypercharge, but no spacetime spin. A complex Higgs doublet contains four real field components. The vacuum expectation value is a property of the lowest-energy state, not a gas of Higgs bosons. A Higgs boson is an excitation about that state.

Why introduce this field? A bare mass term for a gauge field generally fails to respect the local gauge symmetry. A bare Dirac mass term for a charged Standard Model fermion also joins left- and right-handed fields with different Standard Model representations. A Higgs doublet permits gauge-invariant interactions whose expansion about a nonzero vacuum expectation value supplies both masses and definite Higgs boson interactions. The field therefore links the mass problem to experimentally testable coupling relations, as illustrated by the Higgs boson coupling to Z bosons.

A single weak-doublet higgsino of hypercharge $+1/2$ contributes $1/4$ to the cubic hypercharge gauge anomaly, $1/4$ to the weak-squared hypercharge coefficient with fundamental index $1/2$, and $1$ to the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly. A second Higgs chiral doublet of opposite hypercharge cancels all three through its higgsino. The pair also contributes an even number of weak doublets, avoiding a new Witten SU(2) anomaly. Higgs complex scalar fields do not cancel chiral fermion gauge anomalies.

A renormalizable MSSM superpotential is a holomorphic function of chiral superfields and cannot use their conjugates. Gauge-invariant up-type Yukawa couplings require $H_u$ of hypercharge $+1/2$, while down-type and charged-lepton Yukawa couplings require $H_d$ of hypercharge $-1/2$. A single doublet and its conjugate cannot play both roles in the superpotential. This is distinct from higgsino anomaly cancellation.

In the MSSM, each fermion generation has chiral superfields $Q:(3,2,1/6)$, $U^c:(\bar{3},1,-2/3)$, $D^c:(\bar{3},1,1/3)$, $L:(1,2,-1/2)$, and $E^c:(1,1,1)$. This uses hypercharge normalized by $Q_{\mathrm{electric}}=T^3+Y$ and only left-handed Weyl spinors. Two Higgs chiral doublets have charges $\pm 1/2$. The three vector superfields transform as $(8,1,0)$, $(1,3,0)$ and $(1,1,0)$, supplying the gauge bosons and gauginos.

With hypercharge normalized by $Q_{\mathrm{em}}=T_3+Y$, the renormalizable R-parity-conserving MSSM superpotential is $W=(y_u{)}_{ij}{U}_i^c(Q_j\cdot H_u)+(y_d{)}_{ij}{D}_i^c(Q_j\cdot H_d)+(y_e{)}_{ij}{E}_i^c(L_j\cdot H_d)+\mu H_u\cdot H_d$, with $A\cdot B={ϵ}_{ab}{A}^a{B}^b$. Additional renormalizable R-parity violation allows $\frac{1}{2}{\lambda }_{ijk}(L_i\cdot L_j)E_k^c+{\lambda }_{ijk}^{\prime }(L_i\cdot Q_j)D_k^c+\frac{1}{2}{\lambda }_{ijk}^{\prime \prime }{ϵ}_{abc}{U}_i^{c,a}{D}_j^{c,b}{D}_k^{c,c}+{\kappa }_i{L}_i\cdot H_u$. The two antisymmetries are ${\lambda }_{ijk}=-{\lambda }_{jik}$ and ${\lambda }_{ijk}^{\prime \prime }=-{\lambda }_{ikj}^{\prime \prime }$. The first, second and fourth additional terms violate lepton number; the third violates baryon number.

At the stated order the renormalization-group beta function is separable:ConsequentlyFor a positive initial running coupling, this expression is used on the connected interval containing ${\mu }_i$ where its denominator is positive and perturbation theory remains valid.

If $b_0<0$, the running coupling decreases at high renormalization scale and tends to zero: this is asymptotic freedom. Decreasing the renormalization scale increases the running coupling, with a formal infrared pole at $\Lambda ={\mu }_i\exp [1/(b_0{\alpha }_i)]$. Near $\Lambda$, perturbation theory fails; the pole alone is not a proof of confinement. Both QCD and the SU(2) weak gauge coupling have this sign for the Standard Model particle content above the relevant thresholds.

If $b_0>0$, the running coupling decreases towards low renormalization scale and grows towards high renormalization scale. The formal ultraviolet Landau pole is ${\mu }_L={\mu }_i\exp [1/(b_0{\alpha }_i)]$. The pole signals failure of this perturbative evolution, rather than a controlled physical infinity. The hypercharge gauge coupling and ordinary QED with charged matter have this sign.

If $b_0=0$, the running coupling is constant at this order; higher-order terms may still make it run. No Standard Model gauge factor has a vanishing one-loop order coefficient for the usual particle content.

For precise normalization, take ${\alpha }_i=g_i^2/(4\pi )$ and $Q=T_3+Y$. The Standard Model one-loop gauge coefficients then giveThese coefficients use $d/d\ln \mu$, not $d/d\ln {\mu }^2$. Threshold matching changes the active particle content, so the single constant-$b_0$ expression is applied piecewise across thresholds.

Work entirely with left-handed Weyl fermions; a right-handed field is counted through its left-handed charge conjugate. For a simple non-Abelian group $G$, defineThe two orientations of a chiral triangle supply the symmetrized trace. Spectator representation dimensions multiply each trace. The perturbative gauge anomaly conditions for $G\times U(1)$ are thereforeThe first concerns $G^3$, the second $G^{2}U(1)$, and the third $U(1{)}^3$. A $GU(1{)}^2$ triangle has group factor ${\sum }_i{Q}_i^2{\mathrm{tr}}_{R_i}{T}^a=0$, because non-Abelian generators of a semisimple group are traceless. If coupling to gravity is required, also impose the mixed gauge-gravitational condition ${\sum }_i\dim (R_i)Q_i=0$. Cancellation of these local triangles is not a universal substitute for checking global anomalies; the Witten SU(2) anomaly is the relevant additional test here.^[ref]

For the Standard Model, one generation consists of $Q_L:(3,2{)}_{1/6}$, $u^c:(\bar{3},1{)}_{-2/3}$, $d^c:(\bar{3},1{)}_{1/3}$, $L_L:(1,2{)}_{-1/2}$ and $e^c:(1,1{)}_1$. These are precisely the all-left-handed representations; conjugating the singlets reverses their hypercharges relative to right-handed particles. Check the requested triangles separately:

For $3$–$3$–$3$, normalize the cubic coefficient of a fundamental to $+1$. Its conjugate has $-1$, so the weak-doublet multiplicity givesFor $2$–$2$–$2$, the doublet generators obey $\{T^b,T^c\}={\delta }^{bc}I/2$, so $\mathrm{tr}(T^a\{T^b,T^c\})=0$. Thus every doublet separately has zero local cubic weak anomaly. For the global Witten SU(2) anomaly, each generation has three coloured quark doublets and one lepton doublet, an even total of four. All three generations give twelve, so the global obstruction also cancels.

For $3$–$3$–$1$, use $T(3)=T(\bar{3})=1/2$. The two conjugate triplets have the same quadratic index, not its negative:For $2$–$2$–$1$, the three quark colours and one lepton doublet giveFor $1$–$1$–$1$, count every coloured and weak component:The mixed gauge-gravitational coefficient also vanishes:Unlisted gauge combinations contain a single generator of at least one simple factor. For example, $3$–$2$–$1$ has ${\mathrm{tr}}_3{T}^a{\mathrm{tr}}_2{t}^{b}Y$, and $3$–$3$–$2$ has ${\mathrm{tr}}_3(T^a{T}^b){\mathrm{tr}}_2{t}^c$; both vanish. The same reasoning covers $3$–$1$–$1$, $2$–$1$–$1$ and $3$–$2$–$2$, including permutations of the legs. Scalars contribute no chiral triangle anomaly. Therefore

For $\lambda >0$, the scalar potential is minimized at ${\varphi }^{†}\varphi =v^2/2$. With the specified upper-component vacuum expectation value ${\varphi }_0=(v,0{)}^T/\sqrt{2}$ and hypercharge $Y=-I/2$, the unbroken generator isThe other three independent generator directions act nontrivially on ${\varphi }_0$. Thus the connected unbroken gauge subgroup is $U(1{)}_{\mathrm{em}}$, while three gauge directions are broken. The normalization here is $Q=T^3+Y$, not the alternative convention in which hypercharge is doubled.

Apply the covariant derivative directly to the vacuum:In the mostly-plus convention the canonical scalar kinetic term is $-(D_{\mu }\varphi {)}^{†}{D}^{\mu }\varphi$. Its quadratic vector terms areDefine $s_W=\sin {\theta }_W=g_1/\sqrt{g_1^2+g_2^2}$ and $c_W=\cos {\theta }_W=g_2/\sqrt{g_1^2+g_2^2}$. Diagonalization givesThe neutral combination $Z$ lies along the nonzero eigenvector $(g_2,-g_1)$; the orthogonal combination $(g_1,g_2)$ is the massless photon. Comparing the mass terms with $-m_W^2{W}^{+}\cdot W^{-}-m_Z^2{Z}^2/2$ yieldsFinally insert the inverse neutral rotation into the coupling:Both coefficients in the photon term agree, givingThe upper vacuum component is electrically neutral and the lower scalar component has charge $-e$, consistently with the source's negative hypercharge. This doublet is the conjugate convention to the commonly displayed positive-hypercharge doublet; it does not change the vector masses or the electromagnetic coupling. The four real scalar components supply three would-be Goldstone modes and one physical radial Higgs mode, preserving the total physical degrees of freedom.

The gauge fields require their own Yang-Mills Lagrangian, $-W_{\mu \nu }^a{W}^{a\mu \nu }/4$. The non-Abelian field strength contains a term quadratic in the gauge potentials, so squaring it produces three-vector and four-vector self-interaction vertices, with derivative momentum factors in the cubic vertex and SU(2) structure constants in both. They exist in either scalar phase and must be added to the scalar-generated vertices. A gauge-fixed quantum calculation also has gauge-fixing and, where applicable, ghost terms; those are not extra physical boson species.

For ${\mu }^2>0$, the global phase transformation $\Phi \mapsto e^{i\alpha }\Phi$ leaves both the scalar potential and the covariant kinetic term unchanged while leaving $W_j$ fixed. Its Noether charge counts scalar particles minus antiparticles. Thus ${\varphi }_a{\varphi }_b\to {\varphi }_a{\varphi }_b$ and ${\varphi }_a{\varphi }_a^{\ast }\to W_3{W}_3$ are compatible with this charge, whereas ${\varphi }_a{\varphi }_b\to W_j{W}_k$ is forbidden: its initial charge is two and final charge zero. Charge conservation is necessary, not sufficient, for a particular amplitude to be nonzero; other quantum numbers and kinematics still apply.

After adding the hypercharge field, the neutral-vector mass term becomesIts mass matrix has zero determinant. With $G=\sqrt{g^2+g^{\prime 2}}$, the orthonormal combinations areThe unbroken generator is electric charge, $Q=T_3+Y/2$, because the lower doublet component has $T_3=-1/2$ and $Y=1$. The charged combinations $W^{\pm }=(W_1\mp i{W}_2)/\sqrt{2}$ keep mass $gv/2$.

The observed charged weak interaction couples left-chiral fermions within SU(2) doublets. In the Standard Model, $Q_L=(u_L,d_L)$ and $L_L=({\nu }_L,e_L)$ are doublets, while $u_R,d_R,e_R$ are singlets. A vectorlike assignment would also give right-handed charged weak currents, contrary to this observed chiral structure. Once the measured electric charges are specified, $Y=2(Q-T_3)$ fixesAn optional right-handed neutrino is a singlet with $Y=0$. Conjugate left-chiral fields have the opposite hypercharges to these right-chiral fields. These assignments permit gauge-invariant Yukawa interactions; they are not obtained by assigning one common hypercharge to every chirality.

The SU(5) grand unified theory embeds the strong and electroweak groups in a single simple gauge group. Its 24 gauge generators contain the eight gluons, three weak generators and one hypercharge generator, plus twelve additional generators connecting color and weak directions. A common gauge coupling applies at the unification scale with the properly normalized hypercharge generator; low-energy couplings differ through their renormalization group evolution.

Using left-chiral fields throughout, one Standard Model generation fits intoThe dimensions are $3+2=5$ and $6+3+1=10$, so no right-handed neutrino is required in these multiplets. A singlet neutrino can be added. A suitable adjoint scalar vacuum breaks SU(5) to the Standard Model subgroup; a fundamental scalar contains an electroweak doublet and a colored triplet. The extra heavy vector bosons can mediate transitions between quarks and leptons, hence proton decay in the minimal model. This is a proposed unification, not an experimentally established identification of new particles.

The hierarchy problem concerns keeping an elementary weak-scale scalar light in the presence of much heavier physical scales. A heavy state coupled to it generically induces a threshold correction of order $\delta m_H^2\sim c{M}^2/(16{\pi }^2)$, with $c$ a product of couplings. Without protection, a weak-scale result then needs cancellation against a much larger parameter. In SU(5), this is sharpened by doublet-triplet splitting: the electroweak doublet must stay light while its colored partner must be sufficiently heavy to avoid rapid proton decay. Choosing a small tree-level doublet mass is not by itself a mechanism protecting it from subsequent heavy-particle corrections. Supersymmetry and other proposals change this protection problem, but the minimal SU(5) embedding alone does not solve it.

The Standard Model uses the local gauge group $SU(3{)}_c\times SU(2{)}_L\times U(1{)}_Y$. Its Higgs field is a complex Higgs doublet of hypercharge $Y=1/2$. A bare mass term for a weak gauge boson, or for a charged fermion joining inequivalent left- and right-handed gauge representations, would not respect the unbroken electroweak construction. Instead introduce a gauge-invariant Higgs potentialIts minima satisfy ${\Phi }^{†}\Phi =v^2/2$, $v^2={\mu }^2/\lambda$. Choosing a representative $⟨\Phi ⟩=(0,v{)}^T/\sqrt{2}$ leaves $Q=T_3+Y$ unbroken. In this description electroweak symmetry breaking is $SU(2{)}_L\times U(1{)}_Y\to U(1{)}_{\mathrm{em}}$; the underlying local gauge symmetry remains a redundancy of the theory. A vacuum representative is not a physical explicit violation of gauge invariance.

In unitary gauge, write $\Phi =(0,v+H{)}^T/\sqrt{2}$. The gauge-covariant kinetic term $|D_{\mu }\Phi {|}^2$ produceswith $\tan {\theta }_W=g^{\prime }/g$ and $e=g\sin {\theta }_W$. Three angular scalar directions supply the longitudinal gauge-boson polarizations of $W^{+},W^{-},Z$, while one real radial Higgs boson survives with $m_H^2=2\lambda v^2$. Counting physical degrees of freedom checks the Higgs mechanism: the electroweak gauge sector and scalar doublet have $4\times 2+4=12$ before the rearrangement and $3\times 3+2+1=12$ afterwards.

The Higgs potential also fixes the scalar self-interactions:The color gauge group is unbroken, so gluons remain massless. The same electroweak kinetic term fixesGauge-invariant Yukawa couplings such as $-y_d{\bar{Q}}_L\Phi d_R-y_u{\bar{Q}}_L\tilde{\Phi }{u}_R+h.c.$ give $m_f=y_{f}v/\sqrt{2}$ and the physical coupling $-m_{f}H\bar{f}f/v$. These relations predict stronger Higgs couplings to heavier massive particles; they do not determine the Yukawa parameters themselves. The minimal Standard Model does not supply observed neutrino masses. The surviving Higgs boson is neutral and has spin zero; its mass and self-coupling are tied to the curvature of the Higgs potential, not fixed by the gauge couplings alone. Higgs exchange also provides the Higgs cancellation in longitudinal vector scattering, maintaining the required high-energy behavior of weak amplitudes.

At a proton collider, important production mechanisms are gluon-fusion Higgs production through a heavy-quark loop, vector-boson fusion with two outgoing quark jets, associated $WH$ or $ZH$ production, and production with a top quark pair. At an electron–positron collider, Higgsstrahlung $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to ZH$ is a clean example. Tree-level decays include Higgs decay to a fermion pair and, when allowed, Higgs decay to two W bosons or Higgs decay to two Z bosons. Below an on-shell vector-pair threshold, one or both vectors can be virtual. The $gg$ and $\gamma \gamma$ channels arise through loops; neutral colorless $H$ has no corresponding direct tree-level gauge coupling. Rates and branching fractions depend on both couplings and kinematics, so “heaviest available particle” is a guide rather than a complete rule.

The Higgs boson discovery in 2012 supplied an experimental test. The ATLAS experiment and CMS experiment reconstructed two-photon and four-lepton invariant masses in Large Hadron Collider proton collisions. Electromagnetic calorimeters measure photon energies, while tracking and muon systems identify charged leptons; narrow reconstructed peaks can be distinguished from smooth backgrounds with control samples and a likelihood analysis. The ATLAS discovery paper reported a new resonance near $126.5\mathrm{GeV}$. An observed mass peak supports the existence of a new state; production channels, decay rates and angular distributions test whether it has the particular Higgs couplings and quantum numbers.^[ref]

Finally, the hierarchy problem asks why the electroweak scalar mass scale remains much smaller than a putative heavy physical scale without delicate cancellations. A cutoff estimate suggests corrections $\delta m_H^2\sim {\Lambda }^2/(16{\pi }^2)$ times couplings, but the quadratic cutoff term itself depends on the regularization convention. The physical concern persists when a heavy state of mass $M$ couples to the Higgs field and produces threshold corrections of order its coupling times $M^2/(16{\pi }^2)$. Matching a much smaller Higgs mass may then require cancellation between independent parameters. Supersymmetry, compositeness and other protective structures propose different resolutions; renormalizability of the Standard Model does not by itself resolve this sensitivity or establish that new particles must occur at one particular mass.