Mass Generation in Continuum SU(2) Gauge Theory in Covariant Abelian Gauges

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that ghost-antighost condensation in covariant Abelian gauges of SU(2) gauge theory leads to mass generation and finite propagators, addressing infrared divergences.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism for mass generation via spontaneous symmetry breaking in continuum SU(2) gauge theory with covariant Abelian gauges, supported by BRST symmetry.

Findings

Ghost-antighost condensation occurs at small coupling.

Propagators become finite at Euclidean momenta for all fields except the photon.

The mechanism removes non-abelian infrared divergences in high-temperature expansions.

Abstract

The local action of an SU(2) gauge theory in general covariant Abelian gauges and the associated equivariant BRST symmetry that guarantees the perturbative renormalizability of the model are given. I show that a global SL(2,R) symmetry of the model is spontaneously broken by ghost-antighost condensation at arbitrarily small coupling and leads to propagators that are finite at Euclidean momenta for all elementary fields except the Abelian ``photon''. The Goldstone states form a BRST-quartet. The mechanism eliminates the non-abelian infrared divergences in the perturbative high-temperature expansion of the free energy.