Fun with the Abelian Higgs Model

Abstract

In calculations of the elementary scalar spectra of spontaneously broken gauge theories there is a number of subtleties which, though often unnecessary to deal with in the order-of-magnitude type of calculations, have to be taken into account if fully consistent results are sought for. Within the "canonical" effective-potential approach these are, for instance: the need to handle infinite series of nested commutators of derivatives of field-dependent mass matrices, the need to cope with spurious IR divergences emerging in the consistent leading-order approximation and, in particular, the need to account for the fine interplay between the renormalization effects in the one- and two-point Green's functions which, indeed, is essential for the proper stable vacuum identification and, thus, for the correct interpretation of the results. In this note we illustrate some of these issues in the realm of the minimal abelian Higgs model and two of its simplest extensions including extra heavy scalars in the spectrum in attempt to exemplify the key aspects of the usual "hierarchy problem" lore in a very specific and simple setting. We emphasise that, regardless of the omnipresent polynomial cut-off dependence in the one-loop corrections to the scalar two-point function, the physical Higgs boson mass is always governed by the associated symmetry-breaking VEV and, as such, it is generally as UV-robust as all other VEV-driven masses in the theory.