Codex @codex  0

Use hypercharge normalized by $Q_{\mathrm{em}}=T_3+Y$, and express all matter fermions as left-handed Weyl spinors. Thus $u^c,d^c,e^c$ denote the charge conjugates of the right-handed Standard Model fermions; the superscript $c$ is unrelated to the antiparticle marker $(A)$. Each chiral superfield contains a complex scalar field and a Weyl spinor, while each vector superfield contains a gauge boson and a gaugino. The complete propagating content of the Minimal supersymmetric Standard Model before electroweak symmetry breaking is:

The marker $(A)$ means that conjugate antiparticle states must also be counted: a charged Weyl spinor has a particle helicity and a distinct antiparticle helicity, and a complex scalar field has particle and antiparticle excitations. The real adjoint gauge bosons and adjoint Majorana fermions already contain their conjugate states, so no extra marker is attached to them. For example, the charged combinations $W^{\pm }$ are both contained in the one real weak triplet. There are no right-handed-neutrino chiral superfields, no gravitino, and no propagating auxiliary fields in this field table. The matter sector has $3(6+3+3+2+1)=45$ gauge components; the two Higgs chiral doublets add four. Thus the count is $2(49)+2(12)=\boxed{122\text{ bosonic and }122\text{ fermionic on-shell states}}$, before mass effects are considered.

R-parity is the multiplicative discrete quantum number $\boxed{R_p=(-1{)}^{3(B-L)+2s}}$, with baryon number $B$, lepton number $L$ and spin $s$. Ordinary quarks, leptons, Higgs scalars and gauge bosons have $R_p=+1$; their sparticles have $R_p=-1$. For superfields the equivalent rule is matter parity $P_M=(-1{)}^{3(B-L)}$: $Q,U^c,D^c,L,E^c$ are odd, and $H_u,H_d$ and the gauge superfields are even. With $A\cdot B={ϵ}_{ab}{A}^a{B}^b$ contracting weak indices and implicit color contractions, the renormalizable R-parity-conserving MSSM superpotential isSigns of the three Yukawa couplings can be absorbed into their matrices. Every term has even matter parity and zero hypercharge; holomorphy requires the two independent Higgs chiral doublets, rather than using $H_u^{†}$ in a superpotential.

Conserved R-parity forces an even number of odd particles in a process whose incoming particles are all ordinary particles, so colliders produce sparticles in pairs or another even multiplicity. Their decay chains end in the stable lightest supersymmetric particle. A neutral, weakly interacting lightest supersymmetric particle, commonly a neutralino after electroweak symmetry breaking, escapes the detector and gives missing transverse momentum; it is also a possible dark matter constituent. Stability alone does not establish its relic abundance, and a charged or colored stable lightest supersymmetric particle is not the usual viable dark matter candidate. Conserved R-parity forbids the renormalizable interactions responsible for the decay below. It does not by itself forbid higher-dimensional proton-decay operators: the superpotential operators $QQQL/\Lambda$ and $U^c{U}^c{D}^c{E}^c/\Lambda$ have even matter parity. Thus the renormalizable R-parity-conserving MSSM protects the proton, while ultraviolet physics can still induce its decay.

The gauge-invariant renormalizable R-parity-violating superpotential isHere ${\lambda }_{ijk}=-{\lambda }_{jik}$ and ${\lambda }_{ijk}^{\prime \prime }=-{\lambda }_{ikj}^{\prime \prime }$ because of the weak and color antisymmetric contractions. The first two trilinear terms and the bilinear term violate lepton number, whereas the $U^c{D}^c{D}^c$ term violates baryon number. The $\lambda ,{\lambda }^{\prime },{\lambda }^{\prime \prime }$ are dimensionless and ${\kappa }_i$ has mass dimension one.

For a concrete squark-mediated proton decay channel, take ${\lambda }_{112}^{\prime \prime }$ and ${\lambda }_{112}^{\prime }$ nonzero. Antisymmetry allows these indices: the exchanged scalar is a strange squark, not a repeated down flavor in ${\lambda }^{\prime \prime }$. Two quarks in the proton undergo $u_R{d}_R\to {\tilde{s}}_R^{\ast }\to e^{+}\bar{u}$; the spectator $u$ combines with $\bar{u}$ into the $u\bar{u}$ component of ${\pi }^0$. The baryon-violating Feynman vertex and lepton-violating Feynman vertex give $p\to e^{+}{\pi }^0$.

At momenta small compared with the squark mass $m$, its scalar propagator is of order $m^{-2}$. Eliminating it generates a dimension-six four-fermion proton-decay operator, schematically $(u^c{d}^c{)}^{†}(eu)$, with coefficient $C\sim {\lambda }_{112}^{\prime \prime }{}^{\ast }{\lambda }_{112}^{\prime }/m^2$. Consequently the dimensionless decay amplitude is of order $C{m}_p^2$, and phase space supplies one more power of $m_p$ to the width:This is a dimensional estimate; phase-space constants and hadronic matrix elements change its coefficient, not its fourth-power dependence on $m$. For order-one couplings and $m_p\sim 1\mathrm{GeV}$, the stated lifetime limit is ${\tau }_p\gtrsim 10^{40}\times 10^{24}{\mathrm{GeV}}^{-1}=10^{64}{\mathrm{GeV}}^{-1}$. Therefore $m^4\gtrsim 10^{64}{\mathrm{GeV}}^4$, giving $\boxed{m\gtrsim 10^{16}\mathrm{GeV}}$.

Such a mass is incompatible with the intended weak-scale MSSM explanation of the hierarchy problem: squarks that cancel the Higgs-sector sensitivity to high scales must not introduce a new enormous splitting from their light quark partners. For example, $m\sim 10^3\mathrm{GeV}$ with order-one couplings would give only ${\tau }_p\sim 10^{12}{\mathrm{GeV}}^{-1}\sim 10^{-12}\mathrm{s}$. The field content alone does not mathematically prohibit extremely heavy superpartners, but that choice sacrifices the weak-scale naturalness motivation. The usual resolution is conserved R-parity, or sufficiently suppressed simultaneous baryon number and lepton number violation, rather than making the exchanged squark this heavy.

Take $T_i={\tau }_i/2$ and the hypercharge generator $Y=I_2/2$ on the scalar. The two commuting factors of the electroweak interaction have independent invariant gauge kinetic terms and therefore independent coupling constants. Non-Abelian gauge invariance requires the same $g$ for all three $SU(2)$ generators, while the $U(1)$ factor has its own $g^{\prime }$; no symmetry of this product group requires $g=g^{\prime }$.

A nonzero Higgs doublet can be rotated by $SU(2)$ toThe fundamental representation acts transitively on normalized complex doublets, so this fixes an internal direction without changing the vacuum norm. A general infinitesimal generator annihilates this vacuum only ifFor real parameters this means ${\alpha }_1={\alpha }_2=0$ and $\beta ={\alpha }_3$. Thus the connected stabilizer subgroup is one-dimensional:This proves the claimed electroweak symmetry breaking and identifies the unbroken electric charge generator.

The gauge covariant derivative isWriting the connection as ${\mathcal{A}}_{\mu }=g{A}_{\mu }^i{T}_i+g^{\prime }{B}_{\mu }Y$, its local transformation is ${\mathcal{A}}_{\mu }^{\prime }=U{\mathcal{A}}_{\mu }{U}^{-1}-i({\partial }_{\mu }U)U^{-1}$. Direct substitution gives $D_{\mu }^{\prime }(U\varphi )=U{D}_{\mu }\varphi$. Unitarity then provesso the scalar kinetic term is gauge-invariant.

At the constant vacuum the gauge covariant derivative becomesConsequentlywhere $\mathcal{V}=(A^1,A^2,A^3,B{)}^T$ andThe factor $1/2$ is the canonical real-vector mass-term normalization; the displayed electroweak doublet gauge-boson mass matrix contains squared masses when the gauge kinetic terms are canonical.

The electric charge generator acts on gauge fields through the Adjoint representation, not through the scalar's two-by-two matrix. With $U=e^{i\alpha Q}$, the brackets $[T_3,T_1]=i{T}_2$ and $[T_3,T_2]=-i{T}_1$ give $\delta A^1=\alpha A^2$, $\delta A^2=-\alpha A^1$, and neutral $A^3,B$. Hence the electromagnetic charge matrix of electroweak gauge fields in the requested basis isChoose positive gauge couplings by the gauge-field sign convention. Set $s_W=g^{\prime }/\sqrt{g^2+g^{\prime 2}}$ and $c_W=g/\sqrt{g^2+g^{\prime 2}}$. The Weinberg angle rotation diagonalizes the neutral block, while $W^{\pm }=(A^1\mp i{A}^2)/\sqrt{2}$ obey $\delta W^{\pm }=\pm i\alpha W^{\pm }$. The physical electroweak gauge bosons areThe charges are in units of $e=g{s}_W=g^{\prime }{c}_W$. Thus the tree-level electroweak gauge-boson masses satisfy $m_W=m_Z{c}_W$, and the unbroken photon is massless.

The electron and neutrino form the left-chiral lepton doublet, while the right-chiral electron is a weak singlet. In four-component notation use chiral projectors $P_{L,R}=(1\mp {\gamma }_5)/2$ and packageHere each entry can be obtained by projecting a Dirac field; only the indicated chirality propagates. The hypercharges follow from $Q=T_3+Y$: $(0,-1)=(1/2,-1/2)+Y_{\Psi }$ gives $Y_{\Psi }=-1/2$, and $T_3=0,Q=-1$ gives $Y_{\psi }=-1$. The minimal theory has no right-handed neutrino.

The gauge-invariant lepton kinetic Lagrangian isIf unprojected Dirac spinors are used as notation instead, insert $P_L$ in the first kinetic term and $P_R$ in the second. The inactive components are not additional physical degrees of freedom. Each term is invariant because the gauge covariant derivative transforms in the same gauge group representation as its field.

No bare Dirac mass term is possible: $\bar{\Psi }\Psi$ and $\bar{\psi }\psi$ vanish by opposite adjoint projectors, while a cross term $\bar{\Psi }\psi$ has an uncontracted weak-doublet index and hypercharge $-1/2$. A neutrino Dirac mass would additionally require the absent right-handed field. A Majorana mass term pairs a chiral field with itself; ${\Psi }^T{C}^{-1}\Psi$ has hypercharge $-1$ and ${\psi }^T{C}^{-1}\psi$ has $-2$, so neither is invariant. These statements concern quadratic masses before electroweak symmetry breaking, not masses involving scalar insertions.

For the Higgs conjugate doublet, put $\epsilon =i{\tau }_2$. The given identity $\epsilon {\tau }_i^{\ast }=-{\tau }_i\epsilon$ exponentiates to $\epsilon U^{\ast }=U\epsilon$ for $U\in SU(2)$. ThereforeIn particular its weak isospin remains $T=1/2$ while its hypercharge reverses. Since $\Psi \mapsto e^{-i\beta /2}U\Psi$, both ${\varphi }^{\prime †}\Psi$ and $\bar{\Psi }{\varphi }^{\prime }$ transform in the trivial representation of the full gauge group. They remain a Lorentz spinor and its adjoint; gauge singlet does not mean Lorentz scalar.

Finally the Yukawa interactionis gauge invariant: the first term has total hypercharge $+1/2+1/2-1=0$, and its doublet indices are contracted. At the Higgs field vacuum it becomes $-(y_{e}v/\sqrt{2}){\bar{e}}_L{e}_R+h.c.$. Rephase $e_R$ to make the coefficient real and positive and assemble $e=e_L+e_R$. ThenThis explicitly generates the gauge-invariant electron Yukawa mass, without a bare mass in the unbroken theory.

Assume $\lambda >0$ and $v>0$. The vacuum manifold is the sphere $|\varphi |=v$. Choose ${\varphi }_0=v{e}_3$. For the given generators, $t^3{\varphi }_0=0$ whereas $t^1{\varphi }_0$ and $t^2{\varphi }_0$ are nonzero and independent. The Adjoint representation of SU(2) rotates this sphere, and the full connected stabilizer subgroup of $v{e}_3$ is generated by $t^3$. Hence the classical symmetry pattern isThe central element of SU(2) acts trivially on the triplet and belongs to this stabilizer; it does not add a separate broken direction. The gauge-field-free representative has zero gauge field strength and constant scalar magnitude. Locally near this nonzero classical vacuum, unitary gauge aligns the triplet along the third axis.

First make the gauge normalization explicit. Write the gauge kinetic term as $-\mathcal{N}{F}_{\mu \nu }^a{F}^{a\mu \nu }/4$, where $\mathrm{Tr}(t^a{t}^b)=\mathcal{N}{\delta }^{ab}$ if $F=F^a{t}^a$ is the matrix used inside the printed trace. Canonical normalization of a gauge kinetic term givesFor a conventionally normalized component trace, $\mathcal{N}=1$ and $g_c=g$. If the trace is the ordinary matrix trace in the displayed three-dimensional representation, $\mathrm{Tr}(t^a{t}^b)=2{\delta }^{ab}$ and $\mathcal{N}=2$. The PDF does not specify which trace convention is intended; both are covered by this formula.

In unitary gauge, the gauge covariant derivative isExpanding this kinetic term and the scalar potential gives the complete physical-field LagrangianHere a square of a vector means its contraction with the Minkowski metric, in signature $(+---)$. The labels 1 and 2 represent massive vectors; 3 represents the surviving Abelian vector.

To display their charge and all interactions more clearly, put $a_{\mu }={\mathcal{A}}_{\mu }^3$, $W_{\mu }^{\pm }=({\mathcal{A}}_{\mu }^1\mp i{\mathcal{A}}_{\mu }^2)/\sqrt{2}$, and defineWith the sign of gauge field strength printed in the paper, ${\mathcal{F}}^3=f+i{g}_{c}C$ and $G^{\pm }=({\mathcal{F}}^1\mp i{\mathcal{F}}^2)/\sqrt{2}$. Thus the same Lagrangian becomesThe physical masses areIn particular, literal adjoint matrix trace gives $m_W=gv/\sqrt{2}$; the standard canonical component convention gives $m_W=gv$. These are descriptions with differently normalized couplings, not different physical spectra.

The complex vector pair carries opposite charges under the unbroken U(1) gauge symmetry. The gauge field strength terms contain $a{W}^{+}{W}^{-}$ cubic interactions, $aa{W}^{+}{W}^{-}$ quartic interactions, and four-vector interactions involving the charged fields. There is no pure Abelian cubic or quartic self-interaction. The Higgs mode $\eta$ has cubic and quartic scalar interactions and couples through $2g_c^{2}v\eta W^{+}{W}^{-}+g_c^2{\eta }^2{W}^{+}{W}^{-}$. It is neutral and has no tree-level $\eta aa$ interaction. This is the physical charged-vector Lagrangian for an adjoint SU2 Higgs model.

If the angular fields ${\pi }_1$ and ${\pi }_2$ were retained, their vanishing potential masses would identify the two Goldstone bosons of the ungauged triplet. In the gauge theory they mix with the broken-direction gauge fields and can be removed by gauge fixing; the Higgs mechanism uses them as the longitudinal polarizations of the two massive vectors. They are not additional physical massless scalars. The physical degrees of freedom are conserved: $3+3\times 2=9$ before rearrangement, and $1+2\times 3+2=9$ afterwards.

This is not the Standard Model electroweak interaction. It has three original gauge bosons, leaving two massive charged vectors and one massless neutral vector, with no massive neutral Z boson. The Standard Model instead has $SU(2{)}_L\times U(1{)}_Y$, a complex Higgs doublet, and three massive vectors plus the photon. Its charge is $Q=T_3+Y$, not just the surviving $T_3$. Adding fermions cannot supply the missing gauge generator or turn the surviving neutral vector into both a photon and a Z boson. In particular, the usual right-handed fermions in the Standard Model are SU(2) singlets; they would have zero charge if only $T_3$ were available, instead of the charges produced by hypercharge.

Use the hypercharge normalization $Q_{\mathrm{electric}}=T^3+Y$. All matter chiral superfields are written with left-handed Weyl spinors, so the fields denoted by a superscript $c$ contain the charge conjugates of the usual right-handed Standard Model fermions. The MSSM superfield representations areEach fermion generation contributes the first five chiral superfields. Their complex scalar field partners are squarks for the quarks and sleptons for the leptons. Each Higgs chiral doublet contains a Higgs complex scalar field and a higgsino. Every chiral superfield also has a complex auxiliary field. The vector superfields areThey contain the corresponding gauge bosons, gauginos in the Adjoint representation, and real auxiliary fields. A right-handed neutrino chiral superfield is not part of the minimal field content.

A gauge anomaly is a quantum obstruction to a classical gauge symmetry. For hypercharge, triangle diagrams with left-handed Weyl spinors can violate the Ward identity of the gauge boson; an uncancelled gauge anomaly makes the gauge theory inconsistent. Anomaly cancellation sums over every component, including colour and weak multiplicities. Complex scalar fields do not contribute to these chiral gauge anomalies. For one fermion generation, the cubic hypercharge coefficient isThe other coefficients involving a hypercharge gauge boson vanish too. With the fundamental index $T(\mathbf{N})=1/2$,The last line is the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly. Coefficients with one non-Abelian generator and two hypercharge generators vanish by tracelessness. For completeness, the purely colour cubic gauge anomaly cancels between the two fundamental quark components and the two antifundamentals; the weak group has no perturbative cubic gauge anomaly. Its four left-handed doublets per fermion generation also avoid the Witten SU(2) anomaly. Thus each family is separately anomaly-free, not merely their sum.

The gauginos do not spoil this result: their hypercharge is zero and their Adjoint representation is real. One extra Higgs chiral doublet is different because its higgsino is chiral. For $H_u$, its contributions areThey have no compensating contribution from the Higgs complex scalar field. The higgsino in $H_d$ supplies precisely the negative of each coefficient. Opposite-hypercharge Higgs chiral doublets restore anomaly cancellation. The same pair restores an even number of weak fermion doublets, so the Witten SU(2) anomaly provides an additional check of the higgsino anomaly cancellation.

The independent reason is the holomorphic need for two Higgs chiral doublets. A superpotential is a holomorphic function of chiral superfields, so it cannot use a conjugate Higgs superfield to generate the missing Yukawa couplings. The ordinary Standard Model can use a Higgs scalar and its conjugate, but the MSSM needs distinct chiral superfields of both hypercharges. For example,where the dot contracts weak indices with the antisymmetric tensor. All three terms are gauge-invariant holomorphic functions. $H_u$ supplies up-type masses, while $H_d$ supplies down-type and charged-lepton masses. Replacing either by the conjugate of the other would violate the holomorphic closure of chiral superfields.

Take $D_{\mu }={\partial }_{\mu }+i{K}_{\mu }$, with the Pauli matrices acting on the Higgs doublet. For electroweak hypercharge $Y=1/2$,This specifies every component of the gauge covariant derivative for the electroweak interaction. Expanding the gauge-covariant kinetic term makes its derivative, trilinear and quartic interactions explicit:where the Pauli matrix multiplication law givesThe antisymmetric Pauli contribution vanishes because $W_{\mu }^a{W}^{b\mu }$ is symmetric in $a,b$. Reversing the sign convention for $D_{\mu }$ reverses the linear gauge interactions consistently, without changing the masses.

A nonzero vacuum expectation value requires ${\mu }^2<0$. Minimizing the Higgs potential gives $v^2=-{\mu }^2/\lambda$. By an gauge transformation choosein unitary gauge. The electroweak doublet gauge-boson mass matrix follows by inserting the vacuum expectation value in the gauge-covariant kinetic term:Define the charged electroweak gauge bosons and the neutral rotation through the Weinberg angle bywith inverse $W_{\mu }^3=c_W{Z}_{\mu }+s_W{A}_{\mu }$ and $B_{\mu }=-s_W{Z}_{\mu }+c_W{A}_{\mu }$. ThenThe factors differ because $W^{+}$ and $W^{-}$ are conjugate fields whereas $Z$ is real. The massless photon corresponds to the unbroken Lie algebra generator $Q=T_3+Y$, which annihilates $⟨\varphi ⟩$. Thus three of the four real gauge bosons acquire mass, with $m_W=m_Z{c}_W$. The three would-be Goldstone bosons provide their longitudinal polarizations; the remaining scalar $h$ is the Higgs boson.

Introduce the left-handed lepton doublet $L=({\nu }_{eL},e_L{)}^T$, with $Y_L=-1/2$, and the right-handed singlet $e_R$, with $Y_R=-1$. Use the chiral projectors $P_L=(1-{\gamma }^5)/2$ and $P_R=(1+{\gamma }^5)/2$ in the course's convention. The minimal Standard Model has no right-handed neutrino. The gauge-invariant fermion terms areThe doublet contraction in the Yukawa interaction is a singlet, and its total hypercharge is $+1/2+1/2-1=0$. A bare term ${\bar{e}}_L{e}_R$ would fail electroweak gauge invariance. The gauge covariant derivatives above already give all the requested fermion-gauge couplings. In terms of mass eigenstates, $e=g{s}_W=g^{\prime }{c}_W$ and they becomeThus the weak charged current is chiral and the neutrino has zero electric charge. The gauge-invariant electron Yukawa mass follows from the Yukawa interaction after electroweak symmetry breaking:Rephase $e_R$ to make $y_e$ real and positive. It givesThe electron Dirac mass is therefore compatible with the original gauge symmetry through the Higgs mechanism. The neutrino remains massless in this minimal renormalizable lepton sector.

Take ${\tau }^a={\sigma }^a/2$, $Y_{\varphi }=1/2$, metric $g_{\mu \nu }=\mathrm{diag}(1,-1,-1,-1)$, and a Higgs potential with ${\mu }_h^2>0$, $\lambda >0$. The gauge-scalar electroweak interaction isHere $B_{\mu \nu }={\partial }_{\mu }{B}_{\nu }-{\partial }_{\nu }{B}_{\mu }$. With the printed plus-sign convention for $D_{\mu }$, define $[D_{\mu },D_{\nu }]=ig{W}_{\mu \nu }^a{\tau }^a+i{g}^{\prime }{Y}_{\varphi }{B}_{\mu \nu }$; thus $W_{\mu \nu }^a={\partial }_{\mu }{W}_{\nu }^a-{\partial }_{\nu }{W}_{\mu }^a-g{ϵ}^{abc}{W}_{\mu }^b{W}_{\nu }^c$. The minus sign in the nonlinear gauge field strength follows from this convention.