Open Collections

Dynamical chiral symmetry breaking in four-fermi theories

University of British Columbia

Dynamical symmetry breaking of discrete chiral symmetry in four-fermi models is studied. A variational method is used to determine the effective potential. This potential is then examined to determine the critical coupling for which a phase transistion between massless and massive states occurs. Two trial ground states are used in the variational calculation and the results are the same in each case. The first is the ground state of a free massive fermion and the other is a generalized Bogoliobov-Valatin transformation of a free massless fermion ground state. In each case dynamical symmetry breaking occurs, if the coupling is fine-tuned. The results are shown to be valid for physical dimensions 1+1, 2+1 and 3+1 and compared with those of other variational methods and the 1/N expansion.

Text

2010-12-09

For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/30345

Physics

University of British Columbia

Graduate