Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism for accelerating observers
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2017
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Amer Physical Soc
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Abstract
In this work we consider the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the electroweak SU(2)_(L) × U(1)_(Y) gauge group into U(1)_(em) taking place in the Standard Model of particle physics as seen from the point of view of an accelerating observer. According to the Unruh effect, that observer detects the Minkowski vacuum as a thermal bath at a temperature proportional to the proper acceleration a. Then we show that (in a certain large N limit) when the acceleration is bigger than the critical value a_(c) = 4πv (where v is the Higgs vacuum expectation value), the electroweak SU(2)L × U(1)_(Y) gauge symmetry is restored and all elementary particles become massless. In addition, even observers with a ˂ a_(c) can see this symmetry restoration in the region close to the Rindler horizon.
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© 2017 American Physical Society. The author thanks E. Álvarez and R. Tarrach for triggering our interest in the problem considered in this work, L. Álvarez-Gaumé for comments concerning [10], C. Pajares for bringing to our attention Refs. [16,17] and for useful discussions, and J. A. Ruiz-Cembranos for reading the manuscript. This work is supported by Spanish Grants No. MINECO:FPA2014-53375-C2-1-P and No. FPA2016- 75654-C2-1-P.