Unitarily Inequivalent Vacua and Long-Range Forces: Phenomenology with Scalar Boson Mass-Shift

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a sudden mass change in a scalar boson affects long-range forces, highlighting the role of unitarily inequivalent vacua in modifying potential interactions relevant to beyond Standard Model physics.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of vacuum state changes on long-range force phenomenology, emphasizing the distinction between mass-shift effects and vacuum-dependent forces.

Findings

Mass shift alters the one-boson exchange potential.

Casimir force depends solely on the vacuum state.

Vacuum structure influences long-range force measurements.

Abstract

We explore the impact of a sudden shift in the mass of a scalar boson field on long-range forces mediated by this field under the framework of unitarily inequivalent vacua. Since the search for new long-range forces is an active experimental area probing physics beyond the Standard Model, the consequence of a non-trivial vacuum state of a scalar boson on these experiments is elucidated. We show that while the mass shift affects the one-boson exchange potential, the Casimir force remains only dependent on the vacuum state.