Extra dimensions as an alternative to Higgs mechanism.pdfVIP

a r X i v : h e p - t h / 0 1 0 2 1 6 1 v 2 2 7 A u g 2 0 0 1 UNIL-IPT-01-2 hep-th/0102161 February 2001 Extra dimensions as an alternative to Higgs mechanism? Mikhail Shaposhnikova,1 and Peter Tinyakova,b,2 aInstitute of Theoretical Physics, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland bInstitute for Nuclear Research, 117312 Moscow, Russia Abstract We show that a pure gauge theory in higher dimensions may lead to an effective lower-dimensional theory with massive vector field, broken gauge symmetry and no fun- damental Higgs boson. The mechanism we propose employs the localization of a vector field on a lower-dimensional defect. No non-zero expectation values of the vector field components along extra dimensions are required. New possibilities for the solution to the gauge hierarchy problem are discussed. 1E-mail: Mikhail.Shaposhnikov@ipt.unil.ch 2E-mail: Peter.Tinyakov@cern.ch It is usually believed that fundamental or composite scalar fields are necessary for construc- tion of self-consistent theory of interacting massive vector bosons. Indeed, the only known renormalizable theories of massive vector bosons in 4d are gauge theories with spontaneous symmetry breaking by the Higgs mechanism, while all theories that have good high energy behaviour of tree amplitudes can be shown [1] to be equivalent to the spontaneously broken gauge theories with scalar fields. In this note we show that a higher-dimensional pure gauge theory may lead to an effec- tive low-energy theory of massive vector bosons in lower dimensions, thus breaking the gauge symmetry without fundamental Higgs boson. Our mechanism makes use of the localization of a vector field on a lower-dimensional defect (for localization of massless vector fields on a brane see [2] - [8]). It does not involve scalar fields and does not assume non-zero expectation values of the vector-field components along extra dimensions. It is also quite different from the Hosotani mechanism [9] related to a non-triv