Mooses, Topology and Higgs
6/3/2002
94 citations (84 excluding self-citations). The mathematical foundation for the theory-space approach to Little Higgs models, showing that topology determines the low-energy physics.
The Key Idea
Theory spaces — moose or quiver diagrams representing gauge theories on a lattice — can produce a wide variety of low-energy spectra depending on the gauge groups at each site and how they are linked. The paper shows that the fundamental group of the theory space (the topological invariant describing its loops and connectedness) determines the pseudo-Goldstone boson content and potential at low energies. This is a powerful organizing principle: rather than constructing models by trial and error, you can specify the desired low-energy physics and work backward to the topology of theory space that produces it. The result provides tools for systematically constructing and analyzing new theories of electroweak symmetry breaking, complementing the specific models in the Minimal Moose and EWSB from Theory Space papers.
Recollections
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