Bose-Einstein Condensation, Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking, and Gauge Theories

1981
14 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Rev.D 24 (1981) 426-439

Citations per year

198119922003201420240246810
Abstract: (APS)
Bosonic chemical potentials for a variety of relativistic field theories are introduced via the methods of functional integrals with the aim of studying the relationship between Bose-Einstein condensation and spontaneous symmetry breaking. The models studied include the noninteracting and the self-interacting charged scalar field, scalar electrodynamics and the Higgs model, and the Weinberg-Salam model. In general the chemical potential acts as an effective symmetry-breaking parameter although the phase diagrams for the two cases (m2<0 and m2>0) look very different. It is found that the symmetry-restoring temperature in the Weinberg-Salam model increases with increasing electric charge density. Finally, the analysis of Jakobsen, Kon, and Segal of a conserved isotropic total angular momentum for the cosmic background radiation is shown to be erroneous.
  • GAUGE FIELD THEORY
  • BOSON: CONDENSATION
  • MODEL: HIGGS
  • Salam-Weinberg model
  • SPONTANEOUS SYMMETRY BREAKING
  • DENSITY: CHARGED PARTICLE
  • FIELD THEORY: PATH INTEGRAL
  • FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS
  • QUANTUM ELECTRODYNAMICS: SCALAR
  • field theory: scalar