Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Normal Modes

in Mexican Hat Potentials

William Astill
October 6, 2011
Abstract
This paper explores the connections between the symmetries of the mexican hat potential in
n-dimensions (alternatively known as the wine bottle potential) and how these symmetries spontaneously
break when a particle is placed in the potential with the normal modes of oscillation for a particle
within the potential.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Rotational Symmetries of the Mexican Hat Potential 2
2.1 Symmetry Breaking in the Mexican Hat Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3 Normal Modes of the Mexican Hat Potential 3
3.1 SHM in a Mexican Hat Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2 Connection between normal modes and symmetry breaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4 Conclusion 7
5 Acknowledgements 7
1 Introduction
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is a process by which a system that was symmetrical suddenly loses
some of its symmetries. This is an important process in physics and is used in combination with the
Higgs Mechanism to explain why certain particles have a mass, such as the W and Z bosons[1].
The Mexican Hat potential is a potential which appears formulations of the Higgs Mechanism [2] and
can be expressed in the form
V (r) = ar
2
+ br
4
where a and b are both greater than zero and r is dened as
r = |x| =

x x
1
2 Rotational Symmetries of the Mexican Hat Potential
The rotation matrix for a rotation in n-dimensions is an n by n matrix of the form
R =
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
1 0 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . 0
0 1 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 0 . . . cos . . . sin . . . 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 0 . . . sin . . . cos . . . 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 0 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . 1
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
(2.0.1)
where is the angle by which the system is rotated.
When working in more than 3 dimensions the rotations cease to be around an axis like we are used
to in every day life. Instead when an n-dimensional system is rotated the two coordinates which change
are the one corresponding to the two rows/columns which contain a sin and cos and all the remaining
coordinates are left unchanged. This corresponds to rotating a two dimensional plane around a higher
dimensional object, for example in ve dimensions a two dimensional plane is rotated around a three
dimensional space. For ease of explanation when referring to rotations the term axis shall be used to
refer to the higher dimensional object which the plane is rotated around regardless of the actual number
of dimensions the axis has.
The total number of rotational symmetries the mexican hat potential has is equivalent to the number
of axis around which one can rotate which is determined by the number of dierent forms of the matrix
(2.0.1) there are. From the patterns in the matrixs construction one can see that if the rst cos is in
the rst position on the diagonal there are n 1 options for where the second cos can go, if the rst
one is on the second position on the diagonal there are n 2 possible options and so on. Thus the total
number of rotation symmetries which the mexican hat potential has is given by
Number of Symmetry Axes =
n1

i=1
k
i
=
n(n 1)
2
(2.0.2)
As the mexican hat potential is a function only of r, i.e. V = V (r) then it has been shown that it is
symmetric under rotations around all possible axes [3].
2.1 Symmetry Breaking in the Mexican Hat Potential
Whilst the potential has the number of symmetry axes given by equation (2.0.2) when empty when a
particle is placed within the potential some of these symmetries are broken, the system is no longer
symmetrical when rotated around some of the axes as the particles position will move.
An intuitive example is three dimensional space which normally has three rotational symmetry axes.
If a particle is placed on the x axis then rotations around the y and z axes will move the particle meaning
they are no longer symmetric leaving rotation around the x axis as the only preserved symmetry, the
other two have been spontaneously broken by the presence of the particle.
If the rotation of a vector x by an angle is written out as
x = Rx
x = I
n
x + Tx
where T is the generator for the rotation and is true if is small then for x to be conserved
Tx = 0
or = 0 but then the system hasnt been rotated so is a trivial result which this paper wont be concerned
with.
2
The generator of the rotation T is an skew-symmetric matrix of the form
T =
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
0 0 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . 0
0 0 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 0 . . . 0 . . . 1 . . . 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 0 . . . 1 . . . 0 . . . 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
0 0 . . . 0 . . . 0 . . . 1
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
(2.1.1)
with the number of dierent combinations being equal to the amount given by (2.0.2). However if Tx = 0
and x is of the form
x =
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
0
.
.
.
x
k
.
.
.
0
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
then column k of the generator must only contain zeros which reduces the number of possible combinations
by n 1. Note the number of combinations isnt reduced by n because T is a skew symmetric matrix so
must have zeros down the diagonal meaning one value in the column was already xed before hand.
Thus if the number of rotational symmetries is reduced by n 1 the total number of symmetries
becomes
Number of Symmetry Axes =
n(n 1)
2
(n 1)
=
n
2
n
2
n + 1
=
n
2
3n + 2
2
=
(n 1)(n 2)
2
(2.1.2)
3 Normal Modes of the Mexican Hat Potential
Before calculating the normal modes of the potential one must rst identify the stable equilibrium position
from which the displacements will occur, denoted R
0
, which is found by identifying the minima for the
potential. Taking the rst derivative of the potential with respect to r one gets
dV
dr
= 2ar + 4br
3
= 2r(2br
2
a) (3.0.3)
For the gradient to be zero the two solutions for r are
r = 0
r =
_
a
2b
Taking the second derivative of (3.0.3) one obtains
d
2
V
dr
2
= 2a + 12br
2
(3.0.4)
3
and substituting the two values of r for which equation (3.0.3) is equal to zero one nds that the stable
equilibrium is at the point
R
0
=
_
a
2b
(3.0.5)
3.1 SHM in a Mexican Hat Potential
To calculate the normal modes of the potential one must identify how a particle in the potential will
oscillate when displaced from the equilibrium position. First one denes the particles initial coordinates
to be
x
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
x
2
.
.
.
x
n
_
_
_
_
_
such that
n

i=1
x
2
i
= R
2
0
making the particle initially at rest. From this point it is displaced by an amount r to a position r such
that
r = x + r =
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
+ x
1
x
2
+ x
2
.
.
.
x
n
+ x
n
_
_
_
_
_
(3.1.1)
and where r is small.
The force on the particle is the negative of equation (3.0.3) and is thus

F = 2ar 4br
3
(3.1.2)
and when substituting equation (3.1.1) into equation (3.1.2) one obtains

F = 2a
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
+ x
1
x
2
+ x
2
.
.
.
x
n
+ x
n
_
_
_
_
_
4b
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
+ x
1
x
2
+ x
2
.
.
.
x
n
+ x
n
_
_
_
_
_
3
(3.1.3)
4
If one then expands and simplies equation (3.1.3) one obtains

F = 2a
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
+ x
1
x
2
+ x
2
.
.
.
x
n
+ x
n
_
_
_
_
_
4b
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
+ x
1
x
2
+ x
2
.
.
.
x
n
+ x
n
_
_
_
_
_
||r||
2

F = 2a
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
+ x
1
x
2
+ x
2
.
.
.
x
n
+ x
n
_
_
_
_
_
4b
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
+ x
1
x
2
+ x
2
.
.
.
x
n
+ x
n
_
_
_
_
_
_
n

i=1
x
2
i
+ 2
n

i=1
x
i
x
i
_

F = 2ar 4br
n

i=1
_
x
2
i
_
8br
n

i=1
_
x
i
x
i
_

F = 2ar 4brR
2
0
8br
n

i=1
_
x
i
x
i
_

F = 2ar 2ar 8br

n

i=1
_
x
i
x
i
_

F = 8br
n

i=1
_
x
i
x
i
_

F = 8b
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
x
2
.
.
.
x
n
_
_
_
_
_
n

i=1
_
x
i
x
i
_
8b
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
x
2
.
.
.
x
n
_
_
_
_
_
n

i=1
_
x
i
x
i
_

F = 8b
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
x
2
.
.
.
x
n
_
_
_
_
_
n

i=1
_
x
i
x
i
_

F = 8b
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
(x
1
x
i
+ + x
n
x
n
)
x
2
(x
1
x
i
+ + x
n
x
n
)
.
.
.
x
n
(x
1
x
i
+ + x
n
x
n
)
_
_
_
_
_
= m
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
x
2
.
.
.
x
n
_
_
_
_
_

F = 8b
_
_
_
_
_
_
x
2
1
x
1
x
2
. . . x
1
x
n
x
2
x
1
x
2
2
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
x
n
x
1
. . . x
2
n
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
x
2
.
.
.
x
n
_
_
_
_
_
= m
_
_
_
_
_
x
1
x
2
.
.
.
x
n
_
_
_
_
_
(3.1.4)
If the particle is oscillating then the displacement in a coordinate x
i
can be represented as
x
i
= A
i
e
it
and thus the acceleration x
i
can be represented as
x
i
=
2
A
i
e
it
Substituting these into equation (3.1.4) one obtains
_
_
_
_
_
_
x
2
1
x
1
x
2
. . . x
1
x
n
x
2
x
1
x
2
2
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
x
n
x
1
. . . x
2
n
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
A
1
A
2
.
.
.
A
n
_
_
_
_
_
=
_
_
_
_
_
A
1
A
2
.
.
.
A
n
_
_
_
_
_
(3.1.5)
5
where
=

2
m
8b
(3.1.6)
and is an eigenvalue for the matrix on the left hand side of equation (3.1.5).
Solving equation (3.1.5) to nd the eigenvalues one obtains

x
2
1
x
1
x
2
. . . x
1
x
n
x
2
x
1
x
2
2

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
x
n
x
1
. . . x
2
n

= 0
which when n = 2 gives the result
( R
2
0
) = 0
and when n = 3 gave the result

2
( R
2
0
) = 0
Continuing into higher dimensions this suggests a pattern of n 1 eigenvalues being equal to zero and
one eigenvalue being equal to R
2
0
. Calculating the eigenvectors which go with each of the eigenvalues
one nds that for the eigenvalue = R
2
0
the associated eigenvector is
v =
_
x
1
x
2
. . . x
n
_
which is a vector radially out from the centre and for = 0 there are n 1 eigenvectors which form the
associated eigenbasis which consists of
Eigenbasis =
_
_

x
n
x
1
, 0, . . . , 1
_
;
_
0,
x
n
x
2
, . . . , 1
_
; . . . ;
_
0, 0, . . . ,
x
n
x
n1
, 1
_
_
which are vectors perpendicular to the radial direction of the other eigenvector.
This gives two normal modes for a particle to oscillate in a mexican hat potential. One mode is an
oscillation radially out from the centre along the same vector as the particle already lies along. Using
equations (3.1.6) and (3.0.5) one obtains an angular frequency of
=

2
m
8b
= R
2
0

2
m
8b
=
a
2b

2
=
4a
m
=
_
4a
m
The other normal mode is a displacement perpendicular to the particles position vector which has an
angular frequency of zero, i.e. if the particle is displaced perpendicular to the radially outwards vector
it will not oscillate and will instead roll around the bottom of the potential without oscillating.
3.2 Connection between normal modes and symmetry breaking
The number of symmetries which are broken when a particle is placed in the stable equilibrium of the
potential is n 1. This is the same number of normal modes with an angular frequency of zero (zero
modes) which are created by the presence of the particle. Thus the number of zero modes in the potential
is dependent on how many of the symmetries are broken.
If one takes the example of a two dimensional mexican hat potential then initially there is one
rotational symmetry axis and when a particle is placed in the potential this is reduced to zero symmetry
axis. With the presence of the particle one zero mode is created which runs around the ring of stable
equilibrium points.
If however the particle is placed in the centre of the potential on the unstable equilibrium then the
rotational symmetry is preserved. If the particle is then displaced slightly it will oscillate with a non-zero
angular frequency regardless of the direction in which it is displaced, no zero modes are created. Thus
the number of zero modes created is equal to the number of symmetries which are broken.
6
4 Conclusion
This paper has explored how the number of symmetries in the mexican hat potential are reduced by
the presence of a particle within the potential with a particle in the stable equilibrium position breaking
n 1 symmetries. This paper has also explored how a particle oscillates within the potential and shown
that the number of zero modes created in the potential is equal to the number of broken symmetries..
5 Acknowledgements
This paper would not have been possible without the help and guidance of my supervisor Dr Sebastian
Jager who helped point me in the right direction when all paths seemed dead ends and explained any
new concepts which I struggled to grasp on my own.
References
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous symmetry breaking .
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs mechanism .
[3] William Astill. Symmetries and conservation laws in classical mechanics. 2011.
7