Classical Higgs mechanism in plasma

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that high-temperature collisionless plasmas induce a classical Higgs mechanism, giving photons a small mass and explaining electromagnetic wave behavior in plasmas, while low-frequency waves remain unaffected.

Contribution

It introduces a classical Higgs mechanism in plasma physics, showing how high-frequency waves acquire mass, which clarifies wave propagation phenomena in plasmas.

Findings

High-frequency electromagnetic waves gain a small mass in collisionless plasmas.

Low-frequency plasma waves remain massless and are guided by the plasma's dielectric properties.

The mechanism explains wave cut-offs and retardation effects in plasma environments.

Abstract

It is demonstrated that in high temperature collisionless plasmas the propagation of high-frequency electromagnetic waves is naturally subject to a classical Higgs mechanism which in some cases generates a very small though finite mass on the otherwise massless photons. Though this has no further obvious consequence for any plasma processes, it is very satisfactory because it explains the retardation and cut-off of electromagnetic waves when encountering plasmas. Interestingly, low frequency electromagnetic plasma waves (Alfv\'en waves and whistlers) remain carried by confined massless photons. These just experience the increase in the dielectric constant provided by the plasma in the low frequency range below the cyclotron frequency.