Extension of the Goldstone and the Englert-Brout-Higgs mechanisms to non-Hermitian theories

Abstract

We discuss the extension of the Goldstone and Englert-Brout-Higgs mechanisms to non-Hermitian Hamiltonians that possess an antilinear PT symmetry. We study a model due to Alexandre, Ellis, Millington and Seynaeve and show that for the spontaneous breakdown of a continuous global symmetry we obtain a massless Goldstone boson in all three of the antilinear symmetry realizations: eigenvalues real, eigenvalues in complex conjugate pairs, and eigenvalues real but eigenvectors incomplete. In this last case we show that it is possible for the Goldstone boson mode to be a zero-norm state. For the breakdown of a continuous local symmetry the gauge boson acquires a non-zero mass by the Englert-Brout-Higgs mechanism in all realizations of the antilinear symmetry, except the one where the Goldstone boson itself has zero norm, in which case, and despite the fact that the continuous local symmetry has been spontaneously broken, the gauge boson remains massless.