Can gauge symmetry breaking reveal hidden interactions at low temperatures?

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SUMMARY

This discussion explores the concept of gauge symmetry breaking and its implications for understanding interactions at low temperatures. It posits that interactions may remain symmetric at higher temperatures but exhibit spontaneous symmetry breaking as temperatures approach absolute zero. The conversation also clarifies the nature of electromagnetism, emphasizing that it does not split into electricity and magnetism but rather manifests as different components of a unified four-vector potential, which transforms based on the observer's frame of reference.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of gauge symmetry in physics
  • Familiarity with thermodynamic temperature scales
  • Knowledge of electromagnetism and four-vector potentials
  • Basic principles of Lorentz transformations
NEXT STEPS
  • Research gauge symmetry breaking in quantum field theory
  • Study the implications of low-temperature physics on material properties
  • Learn about the four-vector potential in electromagnetism
  • Explore Lorentz transformations and their effects on electromagnetic fields
USEFUL FOR

Physicists, particularly those specializing in theoretical physics, condensed matter physics, and electromagnetism, as well as students seeking to deepen their understanding of gauge theories and low-temperature phenomena.

Garlic
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Can there be interactions that are symmetric under low temperatures but exhibit spontaneous symmetry breaking under extremely low temperatures? (Maybe that symmetry breaking temperature is so low that it couldn't be discovered in experiments)
Does electromagnetism split into electricity and magnetism under ideal conditions?
 
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Electromagnetism "splits into" electricity and magnetism under ordinary conditions. Pre-19th century, they were thought to be two different phenomena.
 
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I don't think electromagnetism splits into anything.

Its four-vector potential just has a temporal component, and three spatial ones. We perceive temporal component as electrostatic potential, and spatial ones as magnetic vector potential. But they are not independent or invariant fields, they are projections of a single field onto your particular frame of reference's time and space subspaces

That's why stationary charges have only electric field (temporal component), but when observer starts moving, magnetic field "magically appears" - by Lorentz transform, for this observer temporal component partially "spilled into" spatial ones.
 

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