Catastrophe theoretic approach to the Higgs Mechanism

Abstract: A geometric perspective of the Higgs Mechanism is presented. Using Thom's Catastrophe Theory, we study the emergence of the Higgs Mechanism as a discontinuous feature in a general family of Lagrangians obtained by varying its parameters. We show that the Lagrangian that exhibits the Higgs Mechanism arises as a first-order phase transition in this general family. We find that the Higgs Mechanism (as well as Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking) need not occur for a different choice of parameters of the Lagrangian, and further analysis of these unconventional parameter choices may yield interesting implications for beyond standard model physics.