Group Approach to Quantization of Yang-Mills Theories: A Cohomological Origin of Mass

TL;DR

This paper proposes a cohomological group approach to quantize Yang-Mills theories, revealing a novel mechanism where gauge group coordinates gain dynamical content, leading to massive vector bosons without traditional symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It introduces a new group-based quantization scheme that attributes dynamical properties to gauge group coordinates, providing an alternative understanding of mass generation in Yang-Mills theories.

Findings

Gauge group coordinates become dynamical outside the null mass shell.

Extra internal degrees of freedom are transferred to vector potentials.

Massive vector bosons emerge without explicit symmetry breaking.

Abstract

New clues for the best understanding of the nature of the symmetry-breaking mechanism are revealed in this paper. A revision of the standard gauge transformation properties of Yang-Mills fields, according to a group approach to quantization scheme, enables the gauge group coordinates to acquire dynamical content outside the null mass shell. The corresponding extra (internal) field degrees of freedom are transferred to the vector potentials to conform massive vector bosons.