Gauge Theories with Nonunitary Parallel Transporters: A soluble Higgs model

Abstract

It has been proposed to abandon the requirement that parallel transporters in gauge theories are unitary (or pseudoorthogonal). This leads to a geometric interpretation of Vierbein fields as parts of gauge fields, and nonunitary parallel transport in extra directions yields Higgs fields. In such theories, the holonomy group H is larger than the gauge group G. Here we study a 1-dimensional model with fermions which retains only the extra dimension, and which is soluble in the sense that its renormalization group flow may be exactly computed, with G=SU(2) and noncompact subgroup H of GL(2,C), or G=U(2), H=GL(2,C). In all cases the asymptotic behavior of the Higgs potential is computed, and with one possible exception for G=SU(2), H=GL(2,C), there is a flow of the action from an UV-fix point which describes a SU(2)-gauge theory with unitary parallel transporters, to a IR-fixpoint. We explain how a splitting of the masses of fermions of different flavor can arise through spontaneous symmetry breaking.

Comments: 34 pages, 1 figure