Barry J. Harrington

Alteration of the ground state by external magnetic fields: The Abelian Higgs model

Abstract By fully exploiting the mathematical and physical analogy to the Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity, we present a complete discussion of the ground state behavior of the four-dimensional Abelian Higgs model in the static tree level approximation. We show that a sufficiently strong external magnetic field can alter the ground state of the theory by restoring a spontaneously broken symmetry, or by creating a qualitatively different “vortex” state. The energetically favored ground state is explicitly determined as a function of the external field and the ratio between coupling constants of the theory.