Membrane Vacuum as a Type II Superconductor

TL;DR

This paper introduces a theoretical model where membranes coupled to a tensor gauge field undergo condensation, resulting in a massive scalar field and resembling a type-II superconductor with a two-phase medium featuring non-superconducting bags.

Contribution

It presents a novel membrane field theory demonstrating gauge field mass generation via a Coleman-Weinberg mechanism and draws an analogy with type-II superconductors.

Findings

Membrane condensation leads to gauge field becoming a massive scalar.

The ground state features a two-phase medium with superconducting and non-superconducting regions.

Bags of non-superconducting vacuum are bounded by membranes with thickness related to the gauge field mass.

Abstract

We study a functional field theory of membranes coupled to a rank--three tensor gauge potential. We show that gauge field radiative corrections lead to membrane condensation which turns the gauge field into a {\it massive spin--0 field}. This is the Coleman--Weinberg mechanism for {\it membranes}. An analogy is also drawn with a type--II superconductor. The ground state of the system consists of a two--phase medium in which the superconducting background condensate is ``pierced'' by four dimensional domains, or ``bags'', of non superconducting vacuum. Bags are bounded by membranes whose physical thickness is of the order of the inverse mass acquired by the gauge field.