Testing a non-perturbative mechanism for elementary fermion mass generation: numerical results

TL;DR

This paper explores a non-perturbative mechanism for generating elementary fermion masses through lattice simulations of a strongly interacting fermion-scalar model, offering an alternative to the Higgs mechanism.

Contribution

It provides preliminary numerical evidence supporting a non-perturbative fermion mass generation mechanism in a lattice model with scalar and fermion fields, distinct from traditional approaches.

Findings

Preliminary results in both phases show signs of dynamical mass generation.

Use of naive fermions and quenched approximation simplifies initial exploration.

Focus on continuum limit behavior of the critical theory in the broken phase.

Abstract

Based on a recent proposal according to which elementary particle masses could be generated by a non-perturbative dynamical phenomenon, alternative to the Higgs mechanism, we carry out lattice simulations of a model where a non-abelian strongly interacting fermion doublet is also coupled to a doublet of complex scalar fields via a Yukawa and an "irrelevant" Wilson-like term. In this pioneering study we use naive fermions and work in the quenched approximation. We present preliminary numerical results both in the Wigner and in the Nambu-Goldstone phase, focusing on the observables relevant to check the occurrence of the conjectured dynamical fermion mass generation effect in the continuum limit of the critical theory in its spontaneously broken phase.