A scaling limit of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ lattice Yang-Mills-Higgs theory

Abstract

The construction of non-Abelian Euclidean Yang-Mills theories in dimension four, as scaling limits of lattice Yang-Mills theories or otherwise, is a central open question of mathematical physics. This paper takes the following small step towards this goal. In any dimension $d\ge 2$, we construct a scaling limit of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ lattice Yang-Mills theory coupled to a Higgs field (under the degenerate potential) transforming in the fundamental representation of $\mathrm{SU}(2)$. After unitary gauge fixing and taking the lattice spacing $\varepsilon\to 0$, and simultaneously taking the gauge coupling constant $g\to 0$ and the Higgs length $\alpha\to \infty$ in such a manner that $\alpha g$ is always equal to $c\varepsilon$ for some fixed $c$ and $g= O(\varepsilon^{50d})$, a stereographic projection of the gauge field is shown to converge to a massive Gaussian field. This gives the first construction of a scaling limit of a non-Abelian lattice Yang-Mills theory in a dimension higher than two, as well as the first rigorous proof of mass generation by the Higgs mechanism in such a theory. Analogous results are proved for $\mathrm{U}(1)$ theory as well. The question of constructing a non-Gaussian scaling limit remains open.