Dynamical Generation of Mass

Abstract

An alternative for the Higgs mechanism is proposed. It predicts the appearance in the broken phase of a scalar background field which may be interpreted as describing an almost uniform (i.e., homogeneous and isotropic) superfluid condensate of decoupled Higgs bosons. Quantum fields acquire mass as a consequence of nonperturbative interactions with those particles condensed in the zero-momentum state (which constitutes the physical vacuum of the theory) giving rise in turn to the appearance of density fluctuations. This mechanism has therefore remarkable cosmological implications.