QCD emergent from spontaneous breakdown of relativity

TL;DR

This paper proposes that quantum chromodynamics (QCD) can emerge from a spontaneous breakdown of relativity in an U(1) Higgs model, leading to an anisotropic vacuum and effective gluon and photon interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism where QCD arises from spontaneous relativity violation, with emergent SU(3) interactions and confinement from Lorentz invariance.

Findings

Emergent SU(3) interactions mimic gluons.

Confinement of quasi quarks demonstrated.

Lorentz invariance ensures confinement and effective gauge interactions.

Abstract

Spontaneous violation of relativistic invariance of the vacuum can derive quantum chromodynamics from an U(1) Higgs model including fermions, if the emergent theory is Lorentz invariant. In this model, the vacuum becomes anisotropic, and a fermion created on a triplet of spin-one vacua acquires degeneracy analogous to the color degrees of freedom. The Nambu-Goldstone bosons originating from the breakdown of rotational symmetry provide the quasi fermions with SU(3)$\times$U(1) effective interactions, which are interpretable as mediated by gluons and photons. The confinement of quasi quarks as well as that of Nambu-Goldstone gluons follow from the Lorentz invariance of the emergent theory.