Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 305 / 2

The scalar potential can be written asIts vacuum manifold is the sphere ${\varphi }_a{\varphi }_a=v^2$. The Adjoint double cover from SU(2) to SO(3) rotates any nonzero vacuum expectation value to $(0,0,v)$, with $v>0$. A local unitary gauge removes the two angular fluctuations, leaving $\varphi =(0,0,v+\eta )$. This choice holds in a neighbourhood of the nonzero vacuum; a single global rotation cannot align arbitrary position-dependent fields, and topologically nontrivial configurations can obstruct a global unitary gauge.

The generator $t^3$ fixes the vacuum expectation value, while $t^1,t^2$ do not. Thus the Higgs mechanism in this SU(2) gauge theory with an adjoint Higgs field givesThe two angular Goldstone bosons become the longitudinal polarizations of two massive gauge bosons. Define physical fieldsThese labels describe the fields of this model; they do not identify it with the Standard Model. With the stated adjoint covariant derivative,To express all Yang-Mills theory terms in physical fields, introduce the gauge field strengthsThen $F_{\mu \nu }^3=f_{\mu \nu }+ig{Q}_{\mu \nu }$ and $(F_{\mu \nu }^1\mp i{F}_{\mu \nu }^2)/\sqrt{2}={\mathcal{W}}_{\mu \nu }^{\pm }$. Dropping the constant vacuum energy, the Lagrangian density isTaking the positive gauge coupling convention $g>0$, the canonically normalized mass terms giveThe residual U(1) gauge symmetry makes $W^{\pm }$ oppositely charged. The Yang-Mills theory terms supply interactions of $A$ with $W^{\pm }$ and four-vector interactions. The Higgs mode has cubic and quartic self-interactions, together with $2g^{2}v\eta W^{+}\cdot W^{-}$ and $g^2{\eta }^2{W}^{+}\cdot W^{-}$ couplings; it is neutral under the surviving U(1) gauge symmetry.

Coupling fermions permits a massless electromagnetic gauge boson and massive charged mediators of the weak interaction; fermion couplings with chirality can produce parity-violating weak charged currents. However, this model has no massive neutral Z boson, and its only charge generator is $t^3$. A fundamental doublet has opposite charges, so it cannot reproduce the observed doublet charge assignments through an independent hypercharge. The Standard Model instead has $SU(2{)}_L\times U(1{)}_Y\to U(1{)}_Q$, a complex Higgs doublet, three absorbed Goldstone bosons, a massive Z boson and a weak mixing angle.

In the matrix expression, $t^a={\lambda }^a/2$ denotes a fundamental generator, whereas the component adjoint covariant derivative uses adjoint generators. With $\mathrm{Tr}(t^d{t}^h)={\delta }^{dh}/2$,Using antisymmetry to write $f^{acd}=f^{dac}$ and $f^{bed}=f^{dbe}$ gives exactly the component mass term. This is the gauge-boson mass matrix from an adjoint scalar.

For ${\Phi }_0=v\mathrm{diag}(1,1,-2)$, the Gell-Mann matrices $t^1,t^2,t^3,t^8$ commute with ${\Phi }_0$. Their gauge bosons are therefore massless. The generators $t^4,t^5,t^6,t^7$ connect the first two eigenspaces to the third; the eigenvalue difference is $3v$. Directly taking the matrix trace giveswith all remaining entries zero. ThusThe factor $1/2$ is the canonical real-vector mass term normalization. The unbroken Lie algebra is $\mathfrak{su}(2)\oplus \mathfrak{u}(1)$, giving the usual description SU(2) × U(1). More precisely, the centralizer of the vacuum expectation value inside $SU(3)$ isThis global quotient refines the adjoint-Higgs breaking of SU(3) to SU(2) and U(1) without changing the local gauge boson spectrum.