UV complete local field theory of persistent symmetry breaking in 2+1 dimensions

Abstract

Spontaneous symmetry breaking can persist at all temperatures in certain biconical $\mathrm{O}(N)\times \mathbb{Z}_2$ vector models when the underlying field theories are ultraviolet complete. So far, the existence of such theories has been established in fractional dimensions for local but nonunitary models or in 2+1 dimensions but for nonlocal models. Here, we study local models at zero and finite temperature directly in 2+1 dimensions employing functional methods. At zero temperature, we establish that our approach describes the quantum critical behaviour with high accuracy for all $N\geq 2$. We then exhibit the mechanism of discrete symmetry breaking from $\mathrm{O}(N)\times \mathbb{Z}_2\to \mathrm{O}(N)$ for increasing temperature near the biconical critical point when $N$ is finite but large. We calculate the corresponding finite-temperature phase diagram and further show that the Hohenberg-Mermin-Wagner theorem is fully respected within this approach, i.e., symmetry breaking only occurs in the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ sector. Finally, we determine the critical $N$ above which this phenomenon can be observed to be $N_c \approx 15$.