Spontaneous symmetry breakdown of scale symmetries

Abstract

We discuss spontaneous symmetry breakdown (SSB) of both global and local scale symmetries in scalar-tensor gravity with two scalar fields, one of which couples nonminimally to scalar curvature while the other is a normal scalar field. In case of a global scale symmetry, by moving from the Jordan frame to the Einstein frame, a normal scalar field becomes massive while the dilaton remains massless after the SSB. In case of a local scale symmetry, we take a gauge fixing condition for the local scale invariance, $a R + b \phi^2 = k$, which was found in our previous study of a Weyl's quadratic gravity. Together with locally scale invariant potential terms in a classical action, this gauge condition generates a Higgs potential whose vacuum expectation value (VEV) produces the Einstein-Hilbert action with an $R^2$ term in the lowest level of approximation. One interesting aspect in this model is that a massless Nambu-Goldstone boson associated with a scale invariance is absorbed into the metric tensor field and consequently an $R^2$ term is induced in the action.