Dynamical stabilization of runaway potentials at finite density

TL;DR

This paper investigates how introducing a chemical potential in non-abelian gauge theories with moduli leads to their instability and condensation, resulting in a stable, non-isotropic vacuum with broken symmetries, relevant for gauge/string duality and cosmology.

Contribution

It demonstrates that chemical potentials induce moduli condensation and nonabelian condensates, stabilizing the vacuum with broken symmetries in four-dimensional gauge theories.

Findings

Chemical potential causes moduli instability and condensation.

Condensates are homogeneous but non-isotropic.

Resulting vacuum breaks gauge, flavor, and rotational symmetries.

Abstract

We study four dimensional non-abelian gauge theories with classical moduli. Introducing a chemical potential for a flavor charge causes moduli to become unstable and start condensing. We show that the moduli condensation in the presence of a chemical potential generates nonabelian field strength condensates. These condensates are homogeneous but non-isotropic. The end point of the condensation process is a stable homogeneous, but non-isotropic, vacuum in which both gauge and flavor symmetries and the rotational invariance are spontaneously broken. Possible applications of this phenomenon for the gauge theory/string theory correspondence and in cosmology are briefly discussed.