Spontaneous breakdown of parity in a class of gauge theories
Abstract
We discuss an SU(2) L × SU(2) R × U(1) based left-right symmetric gauge theory in which parity is broken spontaneously. We prove that the parity broken solution is an absolute minimum of the potential. If the number of Higgs scalars is kept minimal (such that it can provide symmetry breaking to U em(1) and give mass to the fermions), then that theory at low energies agrees with the standard theory in the realm of both charged and neutral weak interactions (up to the corrections {M W L2}/{M W R2}). We present different derivations of this already noticed result and discuss its important consequences. We find that parity violating neutral currents are free from such corrections and therefore agree with the standard model even for finite MW R (if we ignore experimentally tiny mixing between W L+ and W R+ which can be always made to vanish naturally in these kinds of theories).
- Publication:
-
Nuclear Physics B
- Pub Date:
- 1979
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0550-3213(79)90604-7
- Bibcode:
- 1979NuPhB.153..334S