Higgs mechanism and renormalization group flow: are they compatible?
Michael Dütsch
January 31, 2015
Usually the Lagrangian of a model for massive vector bosons is derived in a
geometric way by the Higgs mechanism. We investigate whether this geometric
structure is maintained under the renormalization group (RG) flow. Using the
framework of Epstein-Glaser renormalization, we find that the answer is 'no',
if the renormalization mass scale(s) are chosen in a way corresponding to the
minimal subtraction scheme. This result is derived for the $U(1)$-Higgs model
to 1-loop order. On the other hand we give a model-independent proof that
physical consistency, which is a weak form of BRST-invariance of the
time-ordered products, is stable under the RG-flow.
open access link
'Quantum Mathematical Physics - A Bridge between Mathematics and Physics', Editors Felix Finster, Johannes Kleiner, Christian Röken, Jürgen Tolksdorf, Birkhäuser Verlag (2016)
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