A mass term is a quadratic term without derivatives whose coefficient sets the mass scale of a free field.
The parameter multiplying a scalar quadratic mass term. A negative value describes an instability of the expansion point, rather than a negative value of the physical mass of a stable excitation. Nonnegative quartic terms do not stabilize a negative quadratic term along an exactly flat quartic ray.

Ancestors (7)

  1. Lagrangian density
  2. Lagrangian (field theory)
  3. Classical field theory
  4. Quantum field theory
  5. Branches of physics
  6. Physics
  7. Home

Incoming links (20)

View article source

Discussion (0) New discussion

There are no discussions about this article yet.

Articles by others on the same topic (0)

There are currently no matching articles.
See all articles in the same topic Create my own version