Coleman-Weinberg Mechanism

The Coleman-Weinberg mechanism (after the US physicists Sidney Coleman and Erick Weinberg ) is a mechanism for explaining spontaneous symmetry breaking in quantum field theories . In contrast to the Higgs mechanism , the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism does not require the introduction of additional free parameters of the theory; instead it is based on quantum effects from higher-order corrections in perturbation theory . The Coleman-Weinberg mechanism is an example of how marginal coupling can have a significant impact on the whole theory.

The spontaneous symmetry breaking of the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism predicts the following relationship for the relationship between the scalar boson and the massive vector boson:

${\displaystyle {\frac {m^{2}(\phi )}{m^{2}(A)}}={\frac {3\alpha }{2\pi }}}$

Here is the fine structure constant . ${\displaystyle \alpha \approx 1/137}$

According to the Standard Model, the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism is not established; this gives preference to the Higgs mechanism.

literature

• Sidney Coleman and Erick Weinberg: Radiative Corrections as the Origin of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking . In: Phys. Rev. D . 7, No. 6, March 1973, pp. 1888 ff .. doi : 10.1103 / PhysRevD.7.1888 .