Spontaneous symmetry breaking and Nambu-Goldstone modes in open classical and quantum systems

Abstract

We discuss spontaneous symmetry breaking of open classical and quantum systems. When a continuous symmetry is spontaneously broken in an open system, a gapless excitation mode appears corresponding to the Nambu-Goldstone mode. Unlike isolated systems, the gapless mode is not always a propagation mode, but it is a diffusion one. Using the Ward-Takahashi identity and the effective action formalism, we establish the Nambu-Goldstone theorem in open systems, and derive the low-energy coefficients that determine the dispersion relation of Nambu-Goldstone modes. Using these coefficients, we classify the Nambu-Goldstone modes into four types: type-A propagation, type-A diffusion, type-B propagation, and type-B diffusion modes.