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arXiv · 1205.1160

Spontaneous symmetry breaking and linear effective potentials

Jean Alexandre
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Abstract

The convexity of a scalar effective potential is a well known property, and, in the situation of spontaneous symmetry breaking, leads to the so-called Maxwell construction, characterised by a flat effective potential between the minima of the bare potential. Simple derivations are given here, which show how linear effective potentials arise from non-trivial saddles points which dominate the partition function, for a self-interacting scalar field and for a Yukawa model.

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Jean Alexandre. 2012-05-05. Spontaneous symmetry breaking and linear effective potentials. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.86.025028

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