Unitary Gauge, Stueckelberg Formalism and Gauge Invariant Models for Effective Lagrangians

Within the framework of the path-integral formalism we reinvestigate the different methods of removing the unphysical degrees of freedom from spontanously broken gauge theories. These are: construction of the unitary gauge by gauge fixing; \rx -limiting procedure; decoupling of the unphysical fields by point transformations. In the unitary gauge there exists an extra quartic divergent Higgs self-interaction term, which cannot be neglected if perturbative calculations are performed in this gauge. Using the St\"uckelberg formalism this procedure can be reversed, i.~e., a gauge theory can be reconstructed from its unitary gauge. We also discuss the equivalence of effective-Lagrangian theories, containing arbitrary interactions, to (nonlinearly realized) spontanously broken gauge theories and we show how they can be extended to Higgs models.Comment: 20 pages LaTeX, 4 figures available on reques

The Equivalence Theorem and Effective Lagrangians

We point out that the equivalence theorem, which relates the amplitude for a process with external longitudinally polarized vector bosons to the amplitude in which the longitudinal vector bosons are replaced by the corresponding pseudo-Goldstone bosons, is not valid for effective Lagrangians. However, a more general formulation of this theorem also holds for effective interactions. The generalized theorem can be utilized to determine the high-energy behaviour of scattering processes just by power counting and to simplify the calculation of the corresponding amplitudes. We apply this method to the phenomenologically most interesting terms describing effective interactions of the electroweak vector and Higgs bosons in order to examine their effects on vector-boson scattering and on vector-boson-pair production in $f\bar{f}$ annihilation. The use of the equivalence theorem in the literature is examined.Comment: 20 pages LaTeX, BI-TP 94/1

Integrating out the Standard Higgs Field in the Path Integral

We integrate out the Higgs boson in the electroweak standard model at one loop and construct a low-energy effective Lagrangian assuming that the Higgs mass is much larger than the gauge-boson masses. Instead of applying diagrammatical techniques, we integrate out the Higgs boson directly in the path integral, which turns out to be much simpler. By using the background-field method and the Stueckelberg formalism, we directly find a manifestly gauge-invariant result. The heavy-Higgs effects on fermionic couplings are derived, too. At one loop the \log\MH-terms of the heavy-Higgs limit of the electroweak standard model coincide with the UV-divergent terms in the gauged non-linear $\sigma$-model, but vertex functions differ in addition by finite constant terms. Finally, the leading Higgs effects to some physical processes are calculated from the effective Lagrangian.Comment: 39 pages, latex, 7 figures uuencoded postscript, revised version, to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Effective Lagrangians with Higher Order Derivatives

The problems that are connected with Lagrangians which depend on higher order derivatives (namely additional degrees of freedom, unbound energy from below, etc.) are absent if effective Lagrangians are considered because the equations of motion may be used to eliminate all higher order time derivatives from the effective interaction term. The application of the equations of motion can be realized by performing field transformations that involve derivatives of the fields. Using the Hamiltonian formalism for higher order Lagrangians (Ostrogradsky formalism), Lagrangians that are related by such transformations are shown to be physically equivalent (at the classical and at the quantum level). The equivalence of Hamiltonian and Lagrangian path integral quantization (Matthews's theorem) is proven for effective higher order Lagrangians. Effective interactions of massive vector fields involving higher order derivatives are examined within gauge noninvariant models as well as within (linearly or nonlinearly realized) spontaneously broken gauge theories. The Stueckelberg formalism, which relates gauge noninvariant to gauge invariant Lagrangians, becomes reformulated within the Ostrogradsky formalism.Comment: 17 pages LaTeX, BI-TP 93/2

Equivalence of Hamiltonian and Lagrangian Path Integral Quantization: Effective Gauge Theories

The equivalence of correct Hamiltonian and naive Lagrangian (Faddeev--Popov) path integral quantization (Matthews's theorem) is proven for gauge theories with arbitrary effective interaction terms. Effective gauge-boson self-interactions and effective interactions with scalar and fermion fields are considered. This result becomes extended to effective gauge theories with higher derivatives of the fields.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX, BI-TP 93/40, August 199

Deriving Non-decoupling Effects of Heavy Fields from the Path Integral: a Heavy Higgs Field in an SU(2) Gauge Theory

We describe a method to remove non-decoupling heavy fields from a quantized field theory and to construct a low-energy one-loop effective Lagrangian by integrating out the heavy degrees of freedom in the path integral. We apply this method to the Higgs boson in a spontaneously broken SU(2) gauge theory (gauged linear sigma-model). In this context, the background-field method is generalized to the non-linear representation of the Higgs sector by applying (a generalization of) the Stueckelberg formalism. The (background) gauge-invariant renormalization is discussed. At one loop the log M_H-terms of the heavy-Higgs limit of this model coincide with the UV-divergent terms of the corresponding gauged non-linear sigma-model, but vertex functions differ in addition by finite (constant) terms in both models. These terms are also derived by our method. Diagrammatic calculations of some vertex functions are presented as consistency check.Comment: 33 Pages LaTeX, 6 figures uuencoded postscrip

Extension of the Chiral Perturbation Theory Meson Lagrangian to Order P6P^6

We have derived the most general chirally invariant Lagrangian ${\cal L}_6$ for the meson sector at order $p^6$. The result provides an extension of the standard Gasser-Leutwyler Lagrangian ${\cal L}_4$ to one higher order, including as well all the odd intrinsic parity terms in the Lagrangian. The most difficult part of the derivation was developing a systematic strategy so as to get all of the independent terms and eliminate the redundant ones in an efficient way. The 'equation of motion' terms, which are redundant in the sense that they can be transformed away via field transformations, are separated out explicitly. The resulting Lagrangian has been separated into groupings of terms contributing to increasingly more complicated processes, so that one does not have to deal with the full result when calculating $p^6$ contributions to simple processes.Comment: 59 pages in LaTex, using RevTex macro, TRIUMF preprint TRI-PP-94-6