Alternative Formulation of The Quantum Electroweak Theory

TL;DR

This paper presents a simplified, explicitly renormalizable formulation of the electroweak theory in the SU(2)×U(1) gauge symmetry framework, avoiding the need for the Higgs boson and ensuring unitarity through an α-limiting procedure.

Contribution

It introduces an alternative, simpler formulation of the quantum electroweak theory that is renormalizable and does not require the Higgs boson, using the Lorentz gauge and ghost equations.

Findings

The theory is explicitly renormalizable.

Electroweak theory without Higgs boson is feasible.

Unitarity is maintained via the α-limiting procedure.

Abstract

The quantization of the electroweak theory is performed starting from the Lagrangian given in the so-called unitary gauge in which the unphysical Goldstone fields disappear. In such a Lagrangian, the unphysical longitudinal components of the gauge fields and the residual gauge degrees of freedom are naturally eliminated by introducing the Lorentz gauge condition and the ghost equation. In this way, the quantum theory given in $\alpha $-gauge is perfectly established in the Lagangian formalism by the Faddeev-Popov approach or the Lagrange multiplier method in the framework of SU(2)$\times $U(1) gauge symmetry. The theory established is not only simpler than the ordinary R$_\alpha -$gauge theory, but also explicitly renormalizable. The unitarity of the S-matrix is ensured by the $\alpha -$limiting procedure proposed previously. Especially, it is shown that the electroweak theory without involving the Higgs boson can equally be formulated whitin the $SU(2)\times U(1)$ symmetry and exhibits good renormalizability. The unitarity of such a theory may also be guaranteed by the $\alpha $-limiting procedure.