Vacuum expectation value

Quantum field theory
Feynman diagram
History
Background Field theory Gauge theory Poincaré symmetry Quantum mechanics Spontaneous symmetry breaking
Symmetries Charge conjugation Crossing Parity Time reversal Symmetry in quantum mechanics
Tools Anomaly Effective field theory Expectation value Faddeev–Popov ghosts Feynman diagram Lattice gauge theory LSZ reduction formula Partition function Propagator Quantization Regularization Renormalization Vacuum state Wick's theorem Wightman axioms
Equations Dirac equation Klein–Gordon equation Proca equations Wheeler–DeWitt equation Bargmann–Wigner equations
Standard Model Electroweak interaction Higgs mechanism Quantum chromodynamics Quantum electrodynamics Yang–Mills theory
Incomplete theories Quantum gravity String theory Supersymmetry Technicolor Theory of everything
Scientists C. D. Anderson P. W. Anderson Bethe Bjorken Bogoliubov Brout Callan Coleman DeWitt Dirac Dyson Englert Fermi Feynman Fierz Fock Fröhlich Glashow Gell-Mann Gross Guralnik Heisenberg Higgs Haag Hagen 't Hooft Jordan Kendall Kibble Lamb Landau Lee Majorana Mills Nambu Nishijima Parisi Polyakov Salam Schwinger Skyrme Sudarshan Tomonaga Veltman Ward Weinberg Weisskopf Weyl Wilczek Wilson Yang Yukawa

In quantum field theory the vacuum expectation value (also called condensate or simply VEV) of an operator is its average, expected value in the vacuum. The vacuum expectation value of an operator O is usually denoted by $\langle O\rangle$ . One of the most widely used, but controversial, examples of an observable physical effect that results from the vacuum expectation value of an operator is the Casimir effect.

This concept is important for working with correlation functions in quantum field theory. It is also important in spontaneous symmetry breaking. Examples are:

The Higgs field has a vacuum expectation value of 246 GeV ^[1] This nonzero value underlies the Higgs mechanism of the Standard Model.
The chiral condensate in Quantum chromodynamics, about a factor of a thousand smaller than the above, gives a large effective mass to quarks, and distinguishes between phases of quark matter. This underlies the bulk of the mass of most hadrons.
The gluon condensate in Quantum chromodynamics may also be partly responsible for masses of hadrons.

The observed Lorentz invariance of space-time allows only the formation of condensates which are Lorentz scalars and have vanishing charge. Thus fermion condensates must be of the form $\langle\overline\psi\psi\rangle$ , where ψ is the fermion field. Similarly a tensor field, G_μν, can only have a scalar expectation value such as $\langle G_{\mu\nu}G^{\mu\nu}\rangle$ .

In some vacua of string theory, however, non-scalar condensates are found. If these describe our universe, then Lorentz symmetry violation may be observable.

References

↑ Amsler, C.; Doser, M.; Antonelli, M.; Asner, D.; Babu, K.; Baer, H.; Band, H.; Barnett, R.; Bergren, E.; Beringer, J.; Bernardi, G.; Bertl, W.; Bichsel, H.; Biebel, O.; Bloch, P.; Blucher, E.; Blusk, S.; Cahn, R. N.; Carena, M.; Caso, C.; Ceccucci, A.; Chakraborty, D.; Chen, M. -C.; Chivukula, R. S.; Cowan, G.; Dahl, O.; d'Ambrosio, G.; Damour, T.; De Gouvêa, A.; Degrand, T. (2008). "Review of Particle Physics⁎". Physics Letters B. 667: 1. Bibcode:2008PhLB..667....1A. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2008.07.018.

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Vacuum expectation value

See also

References