Physics – High Energy Physics – High Energy Physics - Theory
Scientific paper
1996-01-31
Int.J.Mod.Phys. A13 (1998) 95-124
Physics
High Energy Physics
High Energy Physics - Theory
Expanded version, 32 pages, figures produced by LaTeX, plain LaTeX
Scientific paper
10.1142/S0217751X98000032
The effective action of a Higgs theory should be gauge-invariant. However, the quantum and/or thermal contributions to the effective potential seem to be gauge-dependent, posing a problem for its physical interpretation. In this paper, we identify the source of the problem and argue that in a Higgs theory, perturbative contributions should be evaluated with the Higgs fields in the polar basis, not in the Cartesian basis. Formally, this observation can be made from the derivation of the Higgs theorem, which we provide. We show explicitly that, properly defined, the effective action for the Abelian Higgs theory is gauge invariant to all orders in perturbation expansion when evaluated in the covariant gauge in the polar basis. In particular, the effective potential is gauge invariant. We also show the equivalence between the calculations in the covariant gauge in the polar basis and the unitary gauge. These points are illustrated explicitly with the one-loop calculations of the effective action. With a field redefinition, we obtain the physical effective potential. The SU(2) non-Abelian case is also discussed.
Henry Tye S.-H.
Vtorov-Karevsky Yan
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