The SU(2) X U(1) Electroweak Model based on the Nonlinearly Realized Gauge Group

TL;DR

This paper formulates an electroweak model based on a nonlinearly realized gauge group without a Higgs field, analyzing its effective action, symmetries, and parameter dependencies, especially regarding vector meson masses.

Contribution

It introduces a Higgsless electroweak model with a novel subtraction procedure and explores the parameter space affecting vector meson masses and their relation to the Weinberg angle.

Findings

The model is consistent at tree level with unitarity and gauge invariance.

It allows two independent mass parameters for vector mesons.

The relation between vector meson masses and the Weinberg angle depends on an extra free parameter.

Abstract

The electroweak model is formulated on the nonlinearly realized gauge group SU(2) X U(1). This implies that in perturbation theory no Higgs field is present. The paper provides the effective action at the tree level, the Slavnov Taylor identity (necessary for the proof of unitarity), the local functional equation (used for the control of the amplitudes involving the Goldstone bosons) and the subtraction procedure (nonstandard, since the theory is not power-counting renormalizable). Particular attention is devoted to the number of independent parameters relevant for the vector mesons; in fact there is the possibility of introducing two mass parameters. With this choice the relation between the ratio of the intermediate vector meson masses and the Weinberg angle depends on an extra free parameter. We briefly outline a method for dealing with \gamma_5 in dimensional regularization. The model is formulated in the Landau gauge for sake of simplicity and conciseness: the QED Ward identity has a simple and intriguing form.