In
field theory, the Stueckelberg action (named after
Ernst Stueckelberg) describes a massive spin-1 field as an R (the
real numbers are the
Lie algebra
In mathematics, a Lie algebra (pronounced ) is a vector space \mathfrak g together with an Binary operation, operation called the Lie bracket, an Alternating multilinear map, alternating bilinear map \mathfrak g \times \mathfrak g \rightarrow ...
of
U(1))
Yang–Mills theory coupled to a real
scalar field
In mathematics and physics, a scalar field is a function (mathematics), function associating a single number to every point (geometry), point in a space (mathematics), space – possibly physical space. The scalar may either be a pure Scalar ( ...
φ. This scalar field takes on values in a real 1D
affine representation of R with'' m'' as the
coupling strength
In physics, a coupling constant or gauge coupling parameter (or, more simply, a coupling), is a number that determines the strength of the force exerted in an interaction. Originally, the coupling constant related the force acting between two ...
.
:
This is a special case of the
Higgs mechanism, where, in effect, and thus the mass of the Higgs scalar excitation has been taken to infinity, so the Higgs has decoupled and can be ignored, resulting in a nonlinear, affine representation of the field, instead of a
linear representation — in contemporary terminology, a U(1) nonlinear -model.
Gauge-fixing φ=0, yields the
Proca action.
This explains why, unlike the case for non-abelian vector fields,
quantum electrodynamics with a massive photon ''is'', in fact,
renormalizable, even though it is not manifestly
gauge invariant (after the Stückelberg scalar has been eliminated in the Proca action).
Stueckelberg extension of the Standard Model
The Stueckelberg extension of the Standard Model (''StSM)'' consists of a
gauge invariant kinetic term for a massive
U(1) gauge field. Such a term can be implemented into the Lagrangian of the
Standard Model
The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions - excluding gravity) in the universe and classifying a ...
without destroying the renormalizability of the theory and further provides a mechanism for
mass generation that is distinct from the
Higgs mechanism in the context of
Abelian
Abelian may refer to:
Mathematics Group theory
* Abelian group, a group in which the binary operation is commutative
** Category of abelian groups (Ab), has abelian groups as objects and group homomorphisms as morphisms
* Metabelian group, a grou ...
gauge theories.
The model involves a non-trivial
mixing of the Stueckelberg and the Standard Model sectors by including an additional term in the effective Lagrangian of the Standard Model given by
:
The first term above is the Stueckelberg field strength,
and
are topological mass parameters and
is the axion.
After symmetry breaking in the electroweak sector the photon remains massless. The model predicts a new type of gauge boson dubbed
which inherits a very distinct narrow
decay width in this model. The St sector of the StSM decouples from the SM in limit
.
Stueckelberg type couplings arise quite naturally in theories involving
compactifications of higher-dimensional
string theory
In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and interac ...
, in particular, these couplings appear in the dimensional reduction of the ten-dimensional N = 1
supergravity coupled to
supersymmetric
In a supersymmetric theory the equations for force and the equations for matter are identical. In theoretical and mathematical physics, any theory with this property has the principle of supersymmetry (SUSY). Dozens of supersymmetric theorie ...
Yang–Mills gauge fields in the presence of internal gauge fluxes. In the context of intersecting
D-brane model building, products of U(N) gauge groups are broken to their
SU(N)
In mathematics, the special unitary group of degree , denoted , is the Lie group of unitary matrices with determinant 1.
The more general unitary matrices may have complex determinants with absolute value 1, rather than real 1 in the specia ...
subgroups via the Stueckelberg couplings and thus the Abelian gauge fields become massive. Further, in a much simpler fashion one may consider a model with only one extra dimension (a type of
Kaluza–Klein model) and compactify down to a four-dimensional theory. The resulting Lagrangian will contain massive vector gauge bosons that acquire masses through the Stueckelberg mechanism.
See also
*
Higgs mechanism#Affine Higgs mechanism
References
The edited PDF files of the physics course of Professor Stueckelberg, openly accessible, with commentary and complete biographical documents.Review:Stueckelberg Extension of the Standard Model and the MSSM* Boris Kors, Pran Nath
* Daniel Feldman, Zuowei Liu, Pran Nath
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Physics beyond the Standard Model
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