Fermion mass without symmetry breaking

Abstract

We examine a model of reduced staggered fermions in three dimensions interacting through an $SO(4)$ invariant four fermion interaction. The model is similar to that considered in a recent paper by Ayyer and Chandrasekharan \cite{Ayyar:2014eua}. We present theoretical arguments and numerical evidence which support the idea that the system develops a mass gap for sufficiently strong four fermi coupling.{\it without} producing a symmetry breaking fermion bilinear condensate. Massless and massive phases appear to be separated by a continuous phase transition.

Comments: 20 pages, 13 figures. New figures. Version accepted for publication in JHEP