No-go theorem on spontaneous parity breaking revisited

Abstract

An essential assumption in the Vafa and Witten's theorem on P and CT realization in vector-like theories concerns the existence of a free energy density in Euclidean space in the presence of any external hermitian symmetry breaking source. We show how this requires the previous assumption that the symmetry is realized in the vacuum. Even if Vafa and Witten's conjecture is plausible, actually a theorem is still lacking.

Comments: Talk presented at LATTICE99(Theoretical Developments),3 pages. Latex using espcrc2.sty