Complex bumblebee model

TL;DR

This paper develops a renormalizable complex bumblebee model coupled to gauge fields, analyzing its quantum corrections, renormalization group behavior, and potential for dynamical Lorentz symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It introduces a complex extension of the bumblebee theory with new couplings, computes one-loop divergences, and explores vacuum structure via an RG-covariant effective potential.

Findings

Derived one-loop UV divergences and counterterms for the model.

Calculated RG functions for couplings and self-interactions.

Identified conditions for dynamical Lorentz symmetry breaking via dimensional transmutation.

Abstract

We formulate a renormalizable complex extension of the bumblebee theory in which the bumblebee field is promoted to a complex one and coupled to an Abelian gauge sector. Besides the minimal gauge covariant interaction, the model includes a longitudinal kinetic term controlled by a dimensionless parameter $g_l$ and a non-minimal magnetic-type coupling $g_m$ between the complex bumblebee and the photon. Using dimensional regularization and minimal subtraction, we determine the one-loop UV divergences of the two-, three-, and four-point functions relevant to the renormalization of the gauge, longitudinal, and quartic sectors. We obtain the corresponding counterterms and derive the one-loop renormalization-group functions for $e$, $g_l$, $g_m$, and the bumblebee self-couplings $\lambda$ and $\tilde\lambda$. Motivated by the known gauge- and field-reparametrization subtleties of the conventional Coleman--Weinberg analysis, we formulate an RG-covariant leading-logarithmic improvement scheme for the Vilkovisky--DeWitt effective potential in normal field coordinates, in which the RG operator is governed solely by the beta functions. We apply this framework to a real constant bumblebee background and obtain the leading-logarithmic one-loop effective potential, discussing the conditions under which a nontrivial vacuum is generated by dimensional transmutation and thereby provides a dynamical realization of Lorentz symmetry breaking in this class of models.