arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to P. M. Stevenson.
The recent calculation of the four-loop beta function in QCD provides further evidence that the Banks-Zaks expansion in 16half-n_f is sufficiently well behaved to be useful even for n_f=2 light flavours. This expansion inherently predicts "freezing" of the QCD couplant at low energies as a perturbative effect. We consider the e+e- and Bjorken-sum-rule cases as examples.
There are two physically different interpretations of ``triviality'' in $(λΦ^4)_4$ theories. The conventional description predicts a second-order phase transition and that the Higgs mass $m_h$ must vanish in the continuum limit if $v$, the physical v.e.v, is held fixed. An alternative interpretation, based on the effective potential obtained in ``triviality-compatible'' approximations (in which the shifted `Higgs' field $h(x)\equiv Φ(x)-<Φ>$ is governed by an effective quadratic Hamiltonian) predicts a phase transition that is very weakly first-order and that $m_h$ and $v$ are both finite, cutoff-independent quantities. To test these two alternatives, we have numerically computed the effective potential on the lattice. Three different methods were used to determine the critical bare mass for the chosen bare coupling value. All give excellent agreement with the literature value. Two different methods for obtaining the effective potential were used, as a control on the results. Our lattice data are fitted very well by the predictions of the unconventional picture, but poorly by the conventional picture.
We respond to Tarrach's criticisms (hep-th/9511034) of our work on lambda Phi^4 theory. Tarrach does not discuss the same renormalization procedure that we do. He also relies on results from perturbation theory that are not valid. There is no "infrared divergence" or unphysical behaviour associated with the zero-momentum limit of our effective action.
Recent lattice data for the effective potential of lambda Phi^4 theory fits the massless one-loop formula with amazing precision. Any corrections are at least 100 times smaller than is reasonable, perturbatively. This is strong evidence for the "exactness conjecture" of Consoli and Stevenson.
The real meaning of `triviality' of (lambda Phi^4)_4 theory is outlined. Assuming `triviality' leads to an effective potential that is just the classical potential plus the zero-point energy of the free-field fluctuations. This V_{eff} gives spontaneous symmetry breaking. Its proper renormalization has the consequence that all scattering amplitudes vanish, self-consistently validating the original assumption. Nevertheless, the theory is physically distinguishable from a free field theory; it has a symmetry-restoring phase transition at a finite critical temperature.
In QCD with 16\half-epsilon massless quark flavours there is an infrared fixed point with alpha_s/pi = (8/321)epsilon in the limit epsilon -> 0+. I develop the idea of Banks and Zaks to expand about N_f=16\half. This expansion is certainly useful for N_f=16, 15, 14, ..., and arguably it can reach the phenomenologically interesting case N_f=2, where it suggests that alpha_s/pi "freezes" to a value of order of magnitude 0.4 in the infrared.
The "triviality" of $(λΦ^4)_4$ quantum field theory means that the renormalized coupling $λ_R$ vanishes for infinite cutoff. That result inherently conflicts with the usual perturbative approach, which begins by postulating a non-zero, cutoff-independent $λ_R$. We show how a "trivial" solution $λ_R=0$ can be compatible with the known structure of perturbation theory to arbitrarily high orders, by a simple re-arrangement of the expansion. The "trivial" solution reproduces the result obtained by non-perturbative renormalization of the effective potential. The physical mass is finite, while the renormalized coupling strength vanishes: the two are NOT proportional. The classically scale-invariant $λΦ^4$ theory coupled to the Standard Model predicts a 2.2 TeV Higgs, but does NOT imply strong interactions in the scalar sector.
The strong evidence for the `triviality' of (lambda Phi^4)_4 theory is not incompatible with spontaneous symmetry breaking. Indeed, for a `trivial' theory the effective potential should be given exactly by the classical potential plus the free-field zero-point energy of the shifted field; i.e., by the one-loop effective potential. When this is renormalized in a simple, but nonperturbative way, one finds, self-consistently, that the shifted field does become non-interacting in the continuum limit. For a classically scale-invariant (CSI) lambda Phi^4 theory one finds m_h^2 = 8 pi^2 v^2, predicting a 2.2 TeV Higgs boson. Here we extend our earlier work in three ways: (i) we discuss the analogy with the hard-sphere Bose gas; (ii) we extend the analysis from the CSI case to the general case; and (iii) we propose a test of the predicted shape of the effective potential that could be tested in a lattice simulation.
We argue that massless (lambda Phi^4)_4 is "trivial" without being entirely trivial. It has a non-trivial effective potential which leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking, but the particle excitations above the broken vacuum are non-interacting. The key to this picture is the realization that the constant background field (the mode with zero 4-momentum) renormalizes differently from the fluctuation field (the finite-momentum modes). This picture reconciles rigorous results and lattice calculations with one-loop and Gaussian-approximation analyses. Because of "triviality", these latter two methods should be effectively exact. Indeed, they yield the same renormalized effective potential and the same relation m_h^2 = 8 pi^2 v^2 between the particle mass and the physical vacuum expectation value. This relation predicts a Higgs mass m_h about 2 TeV in the standard model. The non-interacting nature of the scalar sector implies, by the equivalence theorem, that Higgs and gauge bosons interact only weakly, through their gauge and Yukawa couplings.
The new result for the third-order QCD corrections to R_{e^+e^-}, unlike the old, incorrect result, is nicely compatible with the principle-of-minimal-sensitivity optimization method. Moreover, it leads to infrared fixed-point behaviour: the optimized couplant, alpha_s/pi, for R(e+e-) does not diverge at low energies, but "freezes" to a value 0.26 below about 300 MeV. This provides some direct theoretical evidence, purely from perturbation theory, for the "freezing" of the couplant -- an idea that has long been a popular and successful phenomenological hypothesis. We use the "smearing" method of Poggio, Quinn, and Weinberg to compare the resulting theoretical prediction for R(e+e-) with experimental data down to the lowest energies, and find excellent agreement.
We discuss the use of the optimization procedure based on the Principle of Minimal Sensitivity to the third-order calculation of {\mbox{${R_{e^+e^-}}$}}. The effective coupling constant remains finite allowing us to apply the Poggio-Quinn-Weinberg smearing method down to energies below 1 GeV, where we find good agreement between theory and experiment. The couplant freezes to a value of $α_s/π= 0.26$ at zero energy which is in remarkable concordance with values obtained phenomenologically.
The claim that the Principle of Minimal Sensitivity is "disfavored" because it does not satisfy certain "self-consistency requirements" is meaningless, and shows a basic misunderstanding of the renormalization-scheme-dependence problem.
Branchina et al and Consoli have recently shown that the one-loop effective potential (1LEP) of massless lambda-phi**4 theory can be renormalized in two distinct ways. One of these is the conventional renormalization of Coleman and Weinberg. The other requires an infinite wavefunction renormalization, and is very similar to the "autonomous" renormalization of the Gaussian effective potential. We apply the "autonomous" renormalization to the 1LEP of the SU(2)x U(1) electroweak theory with zero bare Higgs mass. The predicted physical Higgs mass is 1.9 TeV.
In order to investigate the Higgs mechanism nonperturbatively, we compute the Gaussian effective potential (GEP) of the U(1) Higgs model ("scalar electrodynamics"). We show that the same simple result is obtained in three different formalisms. A general covariant gauge is used, with Landau gauge proving to be optimal. The renormalization generalizes the "autonomous" renormalization for lambda-phi^4 theory and requires a particular relationship between the bare gauge coupling e_B and the bare scalar self- coupling lambda_B. When both couplings are small, then lambda is proportional to e^4 and the scalar/vector mass-squared ratio is of order e^2, as in the classic 1-loop analysis of Coleman and Weinberg. However, as lambda increases, e reaches a maximum value and then decreases, and in this "nonperturbative" regime the Higgs scalar can be much heavier than the vector boson. We compare our results to the autonomously renormalized 1-loop effective potential, finding many similarities. The main phenomenological implication is a Higgs mass of about 2 TeV.
We apply the optimization procedure based on the Principle of Minimal Sensitivity to the third-order calculation of $\R$. The effective couplant remains finite, freezing to a value $α_s/π= 0.26$ at low energies. Using Poggio-Quinn-Weinberg smearing we find good agreement between theory and experiment right down to zero energy.