Symmetry Breaking

Franco Strocchi (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

X, 216 Seiten

2010 | 2. Softcover reprint of hardcover 2nd ed. 2008
Springer Berlin (Verlag)
978-3-642-09273-2 (ISBN)

Infos

The main motivation for such lecture notes is the importance of the concept and mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking in modern theoretical physics and the relevance of a textbook exposition at the graduate student level beyond the oversimpli?ed (non-rigorous) treatments, often con?ned to speci?c models. One of the main points is to emphasize that the radical loss of symmetric behaviour requiresboth the existence of non-symmetric ground states and the in?nite extension of the system. The ?rst Part on SYMMETRY BREAKING IN CLASSICAL SYSTEMS is devoted to the mathematical understanding of spontaneous symmetry breaking on the basis of classical ?eld theory. The main points, which do not seem to appear in textbooks, are the following. i) ExistenceofdisjointHilbertspacesectors, stable under time e- lution in the set of solutions of the classical (non-linear) ?eld equations. Theyarethestrictanalogsofthedi?erentphasesofstatisticalmechanical systems and/or of the inequivalent representations of local ?eld algebras in quantum ?eld theory (QFT). As in QFT, such structures rely on the concepts of locality (or localization) and stability, (see Chap. 5), with emphasis on the physicalmotivations of the mathematicalconcepts; such structures have the physical meaning of disjoint physical worlds, disjoint phases etc. which can be associated to a given non-linear ?eld equation. The result of Theorem 5.2 may be regarded as a generalization of the criterium of stability to in?nite dimensional systems and it links such n stability to elliptic problems inR with non-trivial boundary conditions at in?nity (Appendix E).

Inhalt

Symmetry Breaking in Classical Systems.- Symmetries of a Classical System.- Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking.- Symmetries in Classical Field Theory.- General Properties of Solutions of Classical Field Equations.- Stable Structures, Hilbert Sectors, Phases.- Stability under Space Translations. Positive Energy.- Noether Theorem and Symmetry Breaking.- Examples.- The Goldstone Theorem.- Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Systems.- Quantum Mechanics. Algebraic Structure and States.- Fock Representation.- Non-Fock Representations.- Mathematical Description of Infinitely Extended Quantum Systems.- Physically Relevant Representations.- Cluster Property and Pure Phases.- Examples.- Symmetry Breaking in Quantum Systems.- Examples.- Constructive Symmetry Breaking.- Symmetry Breaking in the Ising Model.- Thermal States.- Fermi and Bose Gas at Non-zero Temperature.- Quantum Fields at Non-zero Temperature.- Breaking of Continuous Symmetries. Goldstone's Theorem.- The Goldstone Theorem at Non-zero Temperature.- The Goldstone Theorem for Relativistic Local Fields.- An Extension of Goldstone Theorem to Non-symmetric Hamiltonians.- Symmetry Breaking in Gauge Theories.- Erratum.- Erratum.

Rezensionen

From the reviews of the second edition:

"This second edition of Strocchi's Symmetry breaking presents a complete, generalized and highly rigorous discussion of the subject, based on a formal analysis of conditions necessary for the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking to occur in classical systems, as well as in quantum systems. ... this book is specifically recommended for mathematical physicists interested in a deeper and rigorous understanding of the subject, and it should be mandatory for researchers studying the mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking." (Serena Hajjawi, Mathematical Reviews, 2008)

"The monograph under review is devoted to the mathematical understanding of spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) ... . The monograph gives a strong mathematical base to the SSB phenomena in applied mathematics and physics. Therefore it will be very useful for mathematicians and physicists, students of relevant specialties." (Boris V. Loginov, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1145, 2008)

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 18.11.2010
• Reihe/Serie: Lecture Notes in Physics
• Zusatzinfo: X, 216 p.
• Verlagsort: Berlin
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 155 x 235 mm
• Gewicht: 357 g
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Theoretische Physik
• Schlagworte: Algebraic Structure • Gauge Theory • Goldstone Theorem • Higgs Mechanism • Mathematical Physics • Particle physics • quantum mechanics • Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking • theoretical physics
• ISBN-10: 3-642-09273-X / 364209273X
• ISBN-13: 978-3-642-09273-2 / 9783642092732
• Zustand: Neuware