Phases and Residual Gauge Symmetries of Higgs Models

TL;DR

This paper investigates residual gauge symmetries in Higgs models, analyzing their emergence and disappearance across different phases and their impact on the models' dynamics.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of residual gauge symmetries in Abelian and non-Abelian Higgs models, clarifying their phase-dependent realization and implications.

Findings

Residual gauge symmetries vary across phases

Symmetries emerge or disappear during phase transitions

Implications for Coulomb, Higgs, and confining phases

Abstract

After elimination of the redundant variables, gauge theories may still exhibit symmetries associated with the gauge fields. The role of these residual gauge symmetries is discussed within the Abelian Higgs model and the Georgi-Glashow model. In the different phases of these models, these symmetries are realized differently. The characteristics of emergence and disappearance of the symmetries are studied in detail and the implications for the dynamics in Coulomb, Higgs, and confining phases are discussed.